The Bladed Titan
by greentea-art
Summary: Some soldiers lost their families that day. Some of them lost all hope, and even lost what was left of their humanity. But they always had something left. Something was there for them to go back to. I didn't. I lost everything. I lost my family, my friends...and my ability to walk. So why the hell am I even a soldier? It's because I believe I haven't lost everything just yet.
1. When They Came

• **Jade Covert's POV •**

I wandered around lazily with no destination in mind on the outskirts of town, my bared shoulders nearly pressed up right against the wall. I held my straw sunhat down over my eyes so the sun wouldn't blind me, and my shoeless feet were slightly sore from the small rocks I would occasionally step on. But the grass was soft, and it tickled me from time to time.

"Hey, Jade!"

I turned around a little, still shielding my eyes as I searched for the owner of the voice. I smiled, and waved to two faint figures. Both were dark-haired, though one was a short, slender girl and the other a lean boy.

"Hi, Ren! Mika!" I replied with a big smile on my face. Both were children from my town; Mikasa Ackerman and Eren Jaeger.

Mikasa was rather famous around Shiganshina. She was the child whose parents were slaughtered in front of her very eyes, and she herself was nearly kidnapped if Eren hadn't come and killed her parents' murderers. Since then, she's always been by Eren's side. She could take down bullies by herself, while Eren would only get a nosebleed and a few bruises.

I wasn't too close with them, but we were close enough for nicknames. But I merely turned away from the children—who wore large carriers full of wood on their backs—and continued on my wobbly way.

During afternoons, I would just walk back and forth along the wall that protected us from the Titans. It was a nice feeling, doing nothing in particular.

But for some reason, I was attracted to the walls more than the sense of freedom. They had a mystical air around them, and it would always shake me to my core. Sometimes, I would long for the ability to leap over this hunk of stone and stand on top of the walls. Watch the territory around us and feel the wind on my face. It was very unlike Eren's fantasies, where he just wanted to slaughter Titans for a living.

"Jay! Is that you!?"

Once again, I looked over my shoulder whilst holding the sunhat close to my head. I smiled even wider than I had with Eren and Mikasa.

"Hey, Kenny," I grinned as my best friend came hurtling towards me. He wore the same type of carrier on his back that Mikasa and Eren were wearing earlier, but his load looked a lot heavier. It didn't slow him down, though.

He skidded to a stop in front of me and brushed his short hair back with his fingertips. Sweat sprayed from the mass of blonde, but I ignored the smell as I pressed my cheek to his chest affectionately. "What are you doing out here, Kenny? Shouldn't you be at home?"

"Jay, your dad wants you," Kenny answered, taking my hand without asking me and dragging me away from the edge of the wall. "He says it's something special, and it won't happen again if you miss it today, so I came barreling over."

"What does 'barreling' mean?" I inquired curiously.

"I ran really fast," he said, not paying much attention to me. But I didn't mind. It was good enough being with him, since he was often on errands for his widowed mother. These days, though, it was like he was extra busy. I rarely saw him at all anymore, so I cherished this moment.

I memorized every little thing. The smell of sweat and heat. The warmth and wetness of his palm and fingers enclosed around my own. The small grunts he made when he jumped over rocks. The look of his face as he watched ahead for the quickly-approaching market. I wasn't breathing nearly as hard as he did, as I would sometimes run alongside the walls in my free time. I could run a lot longer than Kenny ever could. But, he might have been panting because of the load on his back.

"Hi, Mr. Hannes!" I giggled as we shot past the drunken guard. He merely gave us a frazzled look and a small wave before taking a swig of the beer in his tankard. My feet burned from the scorching heat from the stone pathways, but I ignored that too. I squinted and pinched my nose with two fingers as we passed the fish section.

"Do we have to take this way...?" I whined in a nasal voice from the way I was holding my nose. "We could have gone around...!"

"But then I wouldn't pass my house on the way." Kenny smiled charmingly, and I realized we were close to his house anyhow. My own home wasn't too far off, so I merely reflected his expression back at him.

"Can we go read by the river after Daddy's errand?" I asked, trying to pull off some puppy eyes. They worked on Kenny all the time when we were littler, but he rolled his with a dismissive attitude.

"I'll try," waved Kenny before he left. I swatted away a fly from my shoulder as I kept walking slowly to my house.

I appreciated the nice cool breeze that tickled the backs of my bare legs. The skirt of my dress was very light and thin, so the wind escaped between my thighs, too. I kept one hand on the edge of my skirt to keep it down, and my other on top of my straw hat. I fiddled with the ribbon of it as I knocked gently on my door.

"Daddy?" I asked as I pushed the door open slightly. "What do you want me to do?"

Daddy was sitting by the fireplace, and there was a roaring blaze inside. I was shocked, since it was a simmering summer day today. Daddy didn't look too comfortable, either, with his forehead soaked in sweat, much like Kenny's when he was dragging me here.

"Oh, hey, Bluejay," Daddy smiled when he noticed me. There were two sticks of metal in his hands, and the ends of them were in the fire. Medical equipment littered the top of our small table, and I blinked in confusion.

"What...is all this, Daddy?" I asked, removing my hat and hanging it on the hook beside the door.

"Bluejay, could you come here for a moment?" requested Daddy, and I noted the soot streaking his cheeks. I complied, pulling up a chair near the fire. I brushed away the smoke that was now swarming my ankles. I looked at him and motioned for him to start talking with a hand.

"Look at my right hand." Since said hand was busy, I took the metal stick and held it for him as he showed me brands on his skin. One on the palm, and one on the top of his hand. Both were pale and stark against his tanned skin, shiny and looked as if they were melted a bit.

The one on the roof of his hand was a mess of lines. but when I looked harder, I realized it was an image of three feathers. The bottoms of the plumes were all connected together, and the edges were wavy lines that were entangled together. It was slightly relaxing, in a strange, unfamiliar way.

On his palm was the badge of the Survey Corps. Also known as the Wings of Freedom. It looked cool, and I pointed it out to Daddy. He chuckled, and ruffled my short brown hair.

"It is...and your Mommy asked if you could have these on you as well before she left..." his voice contracted slightly when he said 'left'. "The feathers are the most important people in your life. The first one is your Mommy. The second is your late brother. And the third is you, my little bluejay."

I giggled. "But...why the Survey Corps?"

"Because that's where your brother left to," Daddy answered. "The one on the palm is something that's very special to you. Your brother was very special to me, so I put the Wings of Freedom on my hand."

"O-okay..." I blinked in confusion. "Why are you...telling me this stuff?"

"Because you're getting these as well today," Daddy said, smiling a hint. "And I knew what you would want for your palm brand..." He showed me the metal stick that he'd pulled from the fire, and I realized it was in the shape of the silhouette of a blue jay.

"Why would I want a blue jay?" I asked, confused. "Isn't that kind of arrogant?"

"It represents your whole family," Daddy explained. "Your mommy gave that name to you, your brother and I called you that, and a blue jay is the symbol of vigilance, determination, and clarity. That sums you up rather nicely."

"Thank you, Daddy!" I grinned, wishing to hug him. But I knew it was dangerous, so instead, I held out my hand.

Daddy sighed in relief. "It's going to hurt a little, Bluejay. Please be careful not to move, okay?"

I nodded firmly and stuffed my mouth with a cloth that was on the table. I also wiped my skin clean, used to these procedures since I'd seen them before, and then let Daddy press the brand into my skin.

I screamed—though muffled by the towel in my mouth—but I kept my promise and didn't move for a minute longer until he removed the metal stick from my skin. He then covered it with another spare cloth, before quickly taking the metal stick from my other hand and looking at me. "How many people do you want on your feathers?"

I thought hard before speaking. "One for Mommy. One for Jojo. One for Kenny, Min, Mika, and Ren. And one for you."

"So, you want four?" he checked. I confirmed it with a nod and clenched the towel tighter with my teeth. He then carefully pressed the stick four times into my skin. I gave a loud cry of pain each time, but then he covered it with the cloth and sealed it away from the world.

Then, taking a thick bandage into his hands, he tightly wrapped up my fresh brands. Blood mildly seeped through the whiteness of the gauze, but I didn't mind it. "Daddy...can I go to the river?"

"Sure, honey," Daddy kissed my forehead lovingly before tying off the gauze. "Just be very careful with your hand. It will take a while to scar, so don't pull off the bandage or anything, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy." I ran back to the doorway and pulled my hat onto my short hair before gently pushing the door open with my bare toes. Daddy waved to me as I left, and I ran outside to go to the river to meet up with Kenny.

I sat there for a while, letting my feet hang over the edge while the sun was slowly moving through the sky. Eventually, it was mid-afternoon. But I got impatient, stuck waiting for Kenny who would probably not show up. With steam flowing out of my ears, I held my branded hand to my chest, and stormed over to his house. I ignored the smell of the disgusting fish market stands and knocked on his door angrily.

"Kenny!" I huffed. It was a few second before he opened the door.

"Oh...hey, Jay." He sounded out of breath, but he still wore that casual smile like nothing was wrong. "I'm sorry I couldn't go and read with you...Mom had some stuff to handle, so I had to watch her goods."

"Hrgh..." I puffed out my cheeks, but Kenny didn't notice as his attention was caught by my bandaged hand.

"Hey, what happened? That wasn't on you earlier today..." he furrowed his brows, trying to figure out what happened. Then his face was overcome with shock. "Did the bullies get you again!? I swear to God, I'll make them pay this time..." He looked furious, and I was amazed at the lightning-fast transformation.

"N-no, Kenny!" I protested. "It's not like that at all! Daddy branded me, that's all!"

Kenny blinked before he let out a sigh of relief. "Oh...your Dad did that, then...?" he relaxed when he realized it wasn't something that was done to me against my will. "What's it look like?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but suddenly the ground suddenly shook and launched me into the air. It all happened so fast that I could barely register the loud boom that came with the tremor. Kenny was sent flying into the air, too, and he landed a little ways away from me. I was collapsed on the stairs that led up to his door, the bottom of my left cheekbone bruised from the edge of the steps.

"K...Kenny...what...was that...?" I breathed, the wind knocked out of me from the shock. I couldn't move, terrified of what had happened. My left hand shook as I tried to support myself up, and it was slippery with nervous sweat. I forced my dazed eyes open, and I looked at the top of the wall I was once walking by this morning.

Steam—or maybe smoke—was billowing above it, creating a dark cloud over the once clear blue sky. Then, the steam parted to make way for a large, skinless face.

I screamed mutely at the sight of it, while I externally stiffened and let myself drop a little. It had the mouth of a corpse, and small pig-like eyes stared around. It had a small nose, and exposed flesh was the majority of its color. The muscles were lined with ridges, showing off each movement perfectly.

I silently screamed again as another earth-shattering boom rattled the air. But this time, I watched as the gate outside of Wall Maria was fragmented into pieces, gliding upwards effortlessly. Debris flew into the air, but Kenny seemed unaware as he stood up, holding his head. My eyes caught sight of a large, heavy-looking boulder that was flying in the air, almost as if it were weightless.

" _Kenny_!" I shrieked. I shoved myself onto my feet and threw him aside as a large rock smashed into the place where his was once standing, and where I now was. It hit me right in the legs. The pain sent a tremor up my spine, and I was viciously thrown away. When I finished skidding, the rock had settled atop my right leg, and it tore out a cry of pain. My hand was still covered in the bandage, thankfully. I tucked it tightly to my chest.

"J...Jay!" Kenny jumped with a start as he saw me limp on the ground. My leg was firmly pinned under the rock, but he didn't seem to care at all as he threw himself against it, trying to push it off. It budged, and I screeched.

"K-Kenny..." I croaked, tears streaming down the sides of my face. "Run...The Titans, they'll...kill you..." A crack sounded from my leg, and I wept louder—It was my knee bone shattering to pieces.

"I don't care!" shot Kenny. "It's my fault you're like this! I'm not leaving you!"

"Please..." It was hard to keep my eyes open, but red met my vision as I looked at my leg. "I wouldn't be able to run..."

"I'd carry you like I used to when we were younger!" Kenny replied instantly, still trying to push aside the rock.

But I heard periodic thumps on the ground, and I shifted my blurry gaze upwards. There stood an ugly three-meter Titan, with a terrifying smile on its face. Its nose was oversized, and the eyes were angled to an extreme.

Kenny seemed to have noticed it too, and he started trying harder. "C'mon! C'mon!" he kept saying over and over as he kept throwing his shoulder into the boulder.

"Bluejay!"

I felt a smile decorate my lips as I saw Daddy run to me. The soot from before still clung to his cheeks, but he still looked the same. But he had a worried expression as he looked at my leg.

"What happened, Bluejay?" he asked, kneeling down and brushing my hair from my face.

"Titan...broke Wall...Maria..." I managed to say, coughing a little.

Daddy looked behind himself to see the Titan edging ever closer, then back at me. "Pretend you're dead, sweetie..."

"D...Daddy...?" I choked.

Daddy ignored me, but instead pressed a kiss to my forehead, which was likely streaked with dust and rubble. "Stay alive, my little Bluejay."

My heart stopped when he said those words. It sounded…like a parting. I tried to use my arms to crawl to him, but my leg kept me fixated in place. He stood up, and walked away from me and my cries, running straight up to the Titan. I watched as he yelled insults, before it stumbled forward and snatched him off the ground with meaty palms.

" _Daddy!_ "

Blood spewed into the air, and I outstretched my branded hand in his direction. But I still watched as the monster swallowed Daddy whole. Kenny looked horrified, and he tried pushing the rock aside harder. But it didn't stop the Titan from coming to him next and taking him off the ground.

"Kenny...!" I was sobbing by this point, tears likely cutting streams through my dirt-covered cheeks.

"Jay—AAUGH!" He screamed a scream that made my breath stop, my heart thudding fearfully. I fought the urge to cry out his name as the Titan placed its teeth over Kenny's skull, cracking it open like a walnut. Blood spilled everywhere, staining my face and memory.

I went limp with fear, collapsing and dropping myself into the pool of red below me. My eyes were glazed open, and miraculously, the Titan that just slaughtered what was left of my family ignored me. It was hard to listen to Daddy's words when his blood was mixing with my own.

 _Kenny...Daddy..._

I was in a daze. Kenny was dead. Daddy was dead. Mommy was missing. Joseph was dead. And I had no clue as to where Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were. My branded feathers were scattered already, dropping from my wings and making me drop into the cold hard ground.

Tears were falling down my face, but I faintly made out the shape of three people. One tall, and two short. "H...help me...please...!" I whimpered, my voice cracking.

Their heads turned, and I heard familiar voices. "Jade!"

It was Eren, Mikasa, and Mr. Hannes.

Mr. Hannes took one look at my leg and froze solid. Eren and Mikasa, however, moved away from him and began trying to push away the rock like Kenny did. The thought of his name made me tear up even more, and my vision became so unclear that I could barely see my friends.

"Ren...Mika..." I rasped, looking up at them. With Mikasa's powerful strength that overpowered Kenny's by a ton, the rock budged more than just a hint. But I cried out in pain. Mr. Hannes noticed this and blinked out of his own daze.

"Look, Jade..." he said quietly. "I'm going to help these two move this, and we'll try to make it fast. It's going to hurt, so be strong for me, okay?"

I nodded briefly, trying not to wail.

Mr. Hannes then sheathed his blades, and took a few steps back, dragging Eren and Mikasa with him. "Alright, kids. On three, we charge the rock and push it off Jade's leg, okay?"

Eren nodded firmly, and I couldn't help but notice a change in him. He looked grief-stricken almost, and I knew it wasn't me. He probably lost his mother and father. The rocks had fallen near his house too, after all. I wondered how he'd escaped unscathed, but I screamed out as I felt the stone dig deeper into my crushed bones. Mr. Hannes, Mikasa, and Eren had charged into the boulder while I had been lost in thought and were now pushing with all their might.

Slowly but surely, it rolled off, and I sobbed a little in relief.

"Can you walk...?" Mr. Hannes asked while Eren and Mikasa eyed my shattered and bleeding leg with concern.

"N...No..." I whispered, feeling more tired by the second. "My leg...is…"

Mr. Hannes gave a short, curt nod, and lifted me bridal style into his arms. My leg—bones the consistency of sawdust—hung limply like an empty rubber glove.

"Jade, are you okay?" Eren asked as we began to walk quickly through the Titan-infested district.

"Where's...Min?" I asked quietly.

"Armin's fine, I think," Mikasa spoke up. As per usual, her eyes were blank and emotionless. "He should be with his grandfather."

I nodded, and let my consciousness slip away. It was hard to hold onto at the moment, but I didn't care. I didn't want to keep staying awake in this hell. No place could be remotely even close to a heaven without Daddy and Kenny.

• **Third Person's POV •**

Mikasa held Jade close to her. The girl had been taken to a medical boat, which was loaded with other people and their families. But out of all of them, many of the doctors were saying that only Jade would be a cripple for the rest of her life.

Armin, his grandfather, Eren, Hannes, and Mikasa were allowed to go with her, since she had no family left. She wasn't like Mikasa, who still had Eren. Or Armin, who still had his grandfather. She was entirely alone as a crippled orphan.

Eren had an exceptionally dazed yet dark expression on his face, his eyes wearing a thousand-meter stare. Armin was curled up against his grandfather's side. Hannes was pacing around in Jade's small room agitatedly. Mikasa was sitting by Jade's side, holding her close. She was even sharing Eren's scarf with the poor girl out of sympathy.

The door gently squeaked open, startling Armin mildly. Footsteps on creaking wood resounded in Mikasa's ears, but she didn't mind as she stared up at the doctor.

"We have a solution for the girl, though it won't make her life as easy as it was before. It is also quite expensive," the doctor said, and Hannes whirled on his heel.

"What solution would that be?" he asked instantly. Jade had always been one of the children he felt rather attached to, as she would buy beer for him in secret sometimes when her friend Kenny was off on errands for his mother. Even pretending to drink with them and joking around quite often. So of course, he would feel panicked when she was in such an unstable condition.

"We could perform a very long surgery on her knee and put the bone fragments back in their original places," the doctor began to explain. Mikasa, Armin, and his grandfather were listening intently on the man's words. No one knew what was going on in Eren's head, as he still had yet to even show signs of acknowledging the man in the room. "Since her nerves weren't damaged too much, she can still feel pain in her leg and any other problems in her leg's general health. However, she won't be able to make it move or function with the damage she _has_ taken. So, we found a solution."

The doctor then pulled from behind him a brace made up of complicated gears and leather straps. It seemed to be just the right size for Jade's leg. There was a switch that would go by her hip, and there was a dial by it too. Multiple words were engraved on the dial, such as 'run' and 'walk'. Even 'kneel' and 'sit' were there.

"These are positions for her brace," the pale doctor continued. "If she wears this, it would make it easier for her to get around, and she wouldn't need her leg to be replaced altogether. However, this will need manual maintenance, so she must learn to clean and fix this brace should it ever become damaged. Also, this won't change her foot positions, so she will likely lose her balance often. It would be nearly impossible for her to become a soldier, so we made this."

He then held up another dial-like mechanism. It was identical to the one already attached to the complicated haze of metal. "She can attach these if she wishes. This is for the omni-directional maneuvering gear, should she ever decide to become a soldier. But, know this. If she can't learn to fix herself, then she can't learn her freedom."

"Freedom..." Eren spat quietly from the corner. Only Mikasa heard him, and she looked at him with her usual black stare. "She never had freedom to begin with..."

Armin caught wind of his words and stiffened under his grandfather's arm.

"I'll pay for her," Hannes decided aloud. He cared for the newly-made cripple, so he would willingly pay up whatever price it was for her leg to be fixed.

The doctor nodded. "Now, since it will be a long way until we arrive at Trost District, we will start the surgery right here." The pale man gestured the door behind himself. "Please leave the room so that we can do this more efficiently."

"I'll stay here," Hannes said firmly, glancing at Jade's sleeping face. "Mr. Arlert?" Armin's grandfather looked up at the sound of his name being called. "Would you mind keeping an eye on all three of these children?"

Armin's grandfather nodded, and slowly stood up. He took his straw hat and placed it on his own head before turning and ushering the three childhood friends out of the room. "Move along, now..." the old man said softly, tugging on Armin's hand with his own. "Let's leave this to the professionals."

The three listened, but each of them subconsciously looked over their shoulders to look at Jade's sleeping face once more before they left.

They settled outside, crowded amongst other people. Eren hunched over when he thought back. The blood spurting from his broken mother's mouth...The pool of red that was at Jade's leg when they found her...And the image of how his home used to be.

Unknowingly, he had begun to cry, and he furiously stood up. "I'm gonna destroy them!" he whisper-yelled, standing up and storming over to the railing. There, the Armored Titan stood, steam coming from his mouth like fire. Mikasa merely watched him with mild surprise. "Every last one...of those animals...that's on this Earth!"

Mikasa looked away and habitually pulled her scarf over her mouth and nose. She wished to only remain by Eren's side...but part of her wanted to do the same things that he wanted. To slaughter the Titans that hurt her friend. To murder the monsters who killed Eren's mother. To kill the beasts that ruined their lives. But she kept her face stoic and remembered Jade's leg.

The girl had her whole life ruined. And unlike Mikasa, who had undergone the same situation, Jade didn't have someone like Eren who could protect her.

If Mikasa ever killed a Titan, it wouldn't only be to keep Eren safe. It would be to avenge her now-crippled friend.


	2. Five Years Later

**[A/N: This is going in the same order as the manga, as well as the spelling of the names (except for Eren's last name). Just saying, for those in confusion.]**

• **Jade Covert's POV •**

I adjusted the dial on my leg brace, moving it to 'STAND' to keep it in place and straight. I then saluted as one of the Commanders shouted in front of us. We were all in line, by order of how well we did. Somehow, I'd landed twelfth despite my leg, with Ymir taking eleventh. Armin, unfortunately, landed last out of the cadets of the 104th.

"We have paid the price for one hundred years of peace with tragedy," the nameless Commander yelled across the open area. It was incredibly quiet, as the cadets had silenced themselves altogether to honor his speech. "Given the sense of crisis at the time, we were ill-prepared to cope with the sudden appearance of the Colossus Titan...As a result, we have been forced to abandon our outer wall, Maria. Humanity's sphere of influence has been driven back to where we are now, Wall Rose. It wouldn't a surprise that if the Colossus Titan showed up...to destroy this wall right this moment. Whenever that time _does_ come, your duty will be to relieve the producers...and give your lives to stand against the Titan menace!" He fisted a hand on his chest passionately. " _Dedicate your hearts_!"

"Yes, sir!" the multitude of cadets replied with just as much force and enthusiasm. They mirrored his salute, as did I.

The Commander went on. "Today you have completed your military training. I will now announce the ten among you who have obtained the top training results. Come forward if I call your name."

I felt myself grin in anticipation

"At the head of the class, Mikasa Ackerman." I grinned, and bounced up and down on my functioning toes, while my braced leg remained still and limp. Mikasa's hair was shorter now, but she still hadn't changed her scarf and that same old blank look of boredom. She stepped forward, her salute still strong over her heart.

"Second, Reiner Braun." This man was like an ox when it came to raw strength. He was also quite steadfast and honestly very funny as well. He often helped me when I struggled with some of the simulations we had and would help me do maintenance on my brace from time to time. He originally hated me when we met, but that has smoothed over since then. I really liked him, but only as a friend. He had short blonde hair, and he towered over me in height.

"Number three, Bertolt Hoover." Reiner's best friend, and despite being even taller than him, the man was very quiet and a real softie on both the inside and outside. He was very caring but had a lack of self-esteem. He never really took initiative, preferring to be a follower over a leader by far. He would help me as well with my leg brace maintenance. We were close because of this, and I was as close with him as I was with Reiner. He had very messy black hair, and a lean body.

"Number four, Annie Leonhart." Annie was a very quiet person. She was a loner, and for some reason, she was very cold towards other people. Despite this, I'd become closer to her than anyone else, and even got her to sometimes sit with Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and myself. But that was a rarity. She had long, pretty blonde hair, but she always kept it in a messy bun on the back of her head. She also had thick bangs that would hide half of her face.

"Number five, Eren Jaeger." I was smiling as I heard his name, and I even locked eyes with him as he moved to step up. He flashed me a charming and determined smile, winking as he moved forward to join his fellow cadets. I had mirrored the look, mouthing the words 'Nice job, Ren' silently. Eren hadn't changed much over the years, except that he'd grown incredibly taller. He was only slightly taller than me, probably only three centimeters or so. His ocean-green eyes were glimmering with pride.

"Number six, Jean Kirstein." Contrary to popular opinion, I really liked Jean as a person. He was very honest, despite his very harsh personality. You couldn't ever expect a lie from him, and although he was very fixated on earning his way into the Military Police Brigade, he would help others when it was necessary. He was also a good leader, but he was so brutally honest that no one would listen to him. But, even though I liked him, he was annoyingly arrogant and that resulted in us constantly arguing. His hair was a strange color of ash brown, and it would darken as it got closer to his head.

"Number seven, Marco Bott." Everyone's favorite nice guy. He was like a much nicer version of Jean, and he knew when to not say things. He would offer to help me on maintenance every day and would often help me earn my points. He and I were very close, and I liked him quite a bit. He also made a fantastic leader and would treat even the simulations Ike he would in real life. That includes drawing the 'Titan's' attention. His hair was much like Bertolt's, only shorter.

"Number eight, Connie Springer." Connie was a short guy with a lot of attack power. He was often very sarcastic and rude, as well as careless. He'd never help me with my leg, which I appreciated. Sometimes people wouldn't be around to help me, so when Connie would pretend I was normal, I'd be happy about it. He hated it, though. We were friends anyhow. His hair was black but shaved close to his scalp.

"Number nine, Sasha Blouse." Sasha was someone who loved food to an unnatural extreme. She and I rarely talked, since she was friends with everybody. But she was clever and based many things off her instincts. I liked that about her. She had very long dark red hair that was always in a ponytail, with dark eyes to match. She was very pretty, but because of her love of food, she was only close with Connie.

"Number ten, Krista Lenz." By far the kindest, most beautiful, and caring girl in the 104th. She never stopped caring for others, never really concerning herself with the scores. She was also Ymir's best friend. If not Annie or Mikasa, then Ymir would be the most unapproachable girl in the 104th. Krista being able to tame her was a miracle. The shortest girl I'd ever seen had long blonde hair, and large blue eyes. She had an ever-present smile on her face, and both guys and girls alike would ask her to marry them.

"You are the top ten," the Commander finished naming off the top ten, and saluted to them respectfully. "Now that you have completed your training...you have three choices. The Garrison, which reinforces the walls, thereby protecting all of the towns...The Survey Corps, prepared to sacrifice their lives outside the walls by defying the Titans in their own domain...And the Military Police Brigade, which exercises control over the King's subjects and maintains order...Of course, out of you raw recruits, the only ones who can join the Military Police Brigade...are the ten with the highest scores."

I swear I saw glimmer of mocking pride in Jean's eyes as he glanced over at me, and my stomach curled in disgust.

"Soon, I'll be asking you which branch you want to be assigned to. But as of right now, the 104th Training Corps is officially disbanded!" The Commander looked proud of us, and I smiled as I spoke with everyone else.

"Yes, sir!"

I turned the dial to 'SIT' on my mechanical leg, and I pulled the chair in from behind me as I held my tankard—full of cold mead—in one hand. The burn scars on my right hand gleamed in the light.

We were all gathered in the mess hall. All of the cadets were drinking and laughing, though some were complaining. I was sitting quietly by Armin—who didn't look too sad about being in last place—and Reiner. The ox man was chatting away, slapping me on the back while taking deep gulps of his drink.

"I'm surprised, Jade!" Reiner exclaimed, smiling proudly. "You managed to score twelfth, even with that leg...! It's really admirable!"

I blushed at the praise and looked away. "Oh, be quiet, Reiner," I laughed a bit as I sipped from my tankard. "A lot of them were probably pity points for me being a cripple."

"Stop putting yourself down like that, Jade," Armin added, pushing away his own beer. "For someone who can't use her right leg automatically and instead uses it manually, you're really good at vertical maneuvering. Most of the people here can't get to your level, and they have both legs in perfect working order."

"That's only because of this," I shot back, showing him the ODM dial that was hidden in my pocket. "This, and the fact that the Instructor lets me modify my gear. Unlike you badasses, I have to use my sword _backhanded_ , otherwise, my balance would be off."

"That's still very advanced, Jade. Only Captain Levi can use his blades backhanded, and he's known as the best soldier ever with those kinds of attacks. He spins just like you do, too!"

I sighed and rested my chin in my branded palm. "Yeah, like I could ever get to his level. Besides, I only use one sword," I grumbled. Because I had to use one hand to adjust the dials on my leg, I only had one sword. I was also tutored personally by the Instructor because I had to master a spinning technique to slice the neck of a Titan. My one sword also had two switches on the hilt, so I could use the hooks of the gear more efficiently, since adding another dial to direct and send a hook flying would sprain my hand.

I sensed that the mood had grown very...violent, by that point. I turned to see Jean boasting tremendously about his score and being able to go to the Military Police Brigade and live inside the interior.

Jean then slapped the back of Marco's head as he was drinking and talking about how much of an honor it would be to serve the King. The beer splashed onto his face, and I gritted my teeth together. "Are you still playing the goody-goody, Marco?"

Marco was blinking in surprise, beer dripping off his chin from Jean's gesture as the other cadets began glaring at him and Jean. "Wha...you..." he was unable to speak for a few seconds, panicking under the judgmental gazes of the others. He then finally turned on Jean, and raised his voice, though it was shaky and uncertain. "Sh-shame on you! At least I'm not..."

"Oh, sorry! My bad!" Jean interrupted, mocking the poor 7th Ranker. "I forgot you were a prize pupil!" But he whirled around and shoved his tankard in the direction of the audience he and Marco had accidentally created. "But what would you guys do!? I mean, getting the chance to live in the interior—it's almost unheard of, right?! Or, given the choice, would you rather stay here in this 'Human Stronghold' or whatever they like to call it?!"

Silence followed his arrogant words, and I was tempted to walk up to him and smack him with the mug I was holding. If it weren't for my crippled leg, I'd have been over there already, tankard in hand.

Finally, the others answered with dry voices and cracked tones.

"Well...none of us to be born in this border town. So, if it meant not having to cower in fright when you hear Titan footsteps..." They couldn't continue after that thought. The thought of Titans. I myself gagged a little and glanced down towards my leg. I thought about the ugly, jagged scars that ran down the skin, and the pain I'd feel when I touched the weak spot by my calf.

Jean looked pleased and finally calmed down a little, relaxing in his chair with a slump of his shoulders. "Good answer..." he said, sipping from his mug lightly. "You'd all like to go to the interior, right?" When he received no answer from the emotionally-dead cadets, he shifted his attention to the two rankers in front of him; Annie and Bertolt. "So... how about you guys?"

"I'm applying to the Military Police Brigade," the tall cadet answered easily. I sighed, sad that he wouldn't be going with me to the Survey Corps. I'd grown fond of his company, after all.

"Me too..." added the 4th Ranker. My heart cracked a little, knowing that after the next few days, she and I wouldn't be able to see each other and talk anymore. "But..." She looked at Jean with bored eyes. "I don't want anyone to think I'm like you."

Jean apparently found the little quip about his personality rather humorous, and he laughed loudly. Perhaps a little too loudly, as Eren stood up from a nearby table, catching my attention. "Hey..." the 5th Ranker said softly. If the hall hadn't been silent at the time from Jean's arrogance, I doubted anyone would have heard him speak. "You said the interior is comfortable...?"

Jean didn't reply, but he kept his light brown eyes firm on Eren's adjusting form. He was clearly listening, so I cut in before Eren could speak.

"Until five years ago, this town was part of the interior, too," I talked with an edge of harshness lining my tone. Jean was the only one who could get this kind of reaction from me, and he was the only one practically immune to it. Beside me, I saw Armin shiver at the sound of my voice out of the corner of my eye.

Eren sent me a thankful look before continuing his fairly one-sided conversation. "Jean, you don't have to go to the interior..." he scowled. "I mean, isn't the interior of your brain soft enough for you?"

"Yeah, your head probably wouldn't fit in the interior anyways," I added lazily, not really thinking much about my words. It was the truth, anyways.

Suddenly, I heard Reiner bellow with laughter, forcing me to jump in surprise. In fact, the beer he had been drinking spewed from his nose and directly onto Armin's head of blonde. "S-sorry!" the bulky man apologized as he wiped his face with a napkin before beginning to help Armin dry off his head. But he sent me and Eren playful grins and winked.

"Waah..." Armin complained as he shook his head like a wet dog. He'd smell like beer—or rather, an alcoholic—for the next day or so. Poor guy.

But as Eren moved to push in his chair, I saw Mikasa's hand go up and pull on his sleeve to pause him. "Eren..." she said calmly. "Don't." After being with the same bunch for three years, she knew his relationships with everyone. And especially his with Jean.

"..." Contrary to my first thoughts, Jean took the insult more smoothly than I expected. He turned around and looked Eren in the eye. "Are you trying to say...that I'm an idiot, Eren?" _Did he ignore me? That's a first._

"I'm pretty sure he is," I mumbled to myself. I knew it was a rhetorical question—I mean, this is Jean we're talking about. He's full of both them _and_ himself—but answering them brought me a hint of comedic relief. Especially with the rather tense atmosphere.

"Well, I'm not," said the 6th Ranker, sending a small glare my way for my comment. "I'm looking at reality...more than anyone." Everyone listened in, and I gently stood up, my leg brace keeping my knee bent at a ninety-degree angle. I shifted the dial to 'WALK' to release it and moved my way over to Jean and Eren. Since I'd oiled the mechanisms so well every night, it made no sound as I moved except for the gentle clicking of metal plates and the whirring of spinning gears.

"Four years ago, twenty percent of the human population was sent out to recover territory stolen by the Titans," Jean spoke of the morbid history with a low voice. "An all-out attack was launched...And most of them ended up walking straight into a Titan's mouth, swallowed whole." Memories of blood spilling on the sidewalks flashed in front of my eyes, and I forcefully changed the dial to 'RELAX', leaning up against the table. My left leg remained stiff, while my crippled one was limp. "How many more would we have needed to retake our land?"

"..." I made a small noise that was halfway between a groan and a sigh. I angled my gaze downwards, thinking of my own sacrifices in order to survive the Titans. I traced the metal gears of my leg with my eyes, picturing the rough and raised scars that lined it.

"For every one of them we defeated, an average of thirty humans died," Jean continued with his story, but he'd noticed my discomfort and changed his look to my crippled limb. "However, the number of Titans who dominate this planet is a lot more than one thirtieth of the human race. I think it's crystal clear."

"Humanity...doesn't stand a chance against the Titans."

The tension in the room was so thick you couldn't cut it, even with a knife. The 6th Ranker looked around, before falling onto my own grim face. He then looked at my hand, which was clutching the dials tensely with whitened knuckles. Guilt crossed over his expression, but it faded as quickly when he stared at Eren after a depressing sigh. "Look, it's like a funeral in here thanks to you."

"I think that was your fault, Jean," I spat under my breath. Nobody noticed my comment, and I was perfectly fine with it.

"So what?" Eren spoke up, his voice not wavering in the slightest.

The ash-brown haired fellow had a look of incredulity on his face. "Huh? Were you listening to me?"

The 5th Ranker nodded. "What you were saying is, 'I don't think we can win, so I'm giving up.'"

"..." Jean glared at my childhood friend.

"Tell me...what's so good about giving up?" asked the dark-haired teen. "Is it better to escape from reality to the point where you're throwing away your hope?"

Everyone had stopped drinking, staring at Eren with wide eyes and gaping mouths. "..." I myself was amongst them, only I bore a smile. A proud smile. Because even though Eren was a very hard person to like, I was one of the few that liked being around him. Seeing my friend like this just made me happy.

"In the first place..." I continued. Eren blinked and glanced at me in surprise. He knew my past with the Titans, so why would I want to leave? "It's a given that we'd lose to the Titans in material terms. One of the causes of our defeat four years ago was our ignorance about the Titans..." I readjusted the dial on my leg to 'WALK' and moved to Eren's side effortlessly. "We lost then, but the information we gained will surely lead to our hope for the future."

Eren picked up afterward. We were in total sync, but no one paid it any mind. It happened quite often. "And yet you're going to give up on developing strategies to fight them? Do you want to be Titan food that badly? Give me a break." He then forced his eyes away from Jean, trying to calm himself down. I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and when he looked my way, I smiled at him.

"I...I have a dream," he finally said, looking over everyone. Not only Jean, not only me, not only Mikasa. But everyone. "It's to exterminate the Titans and leave this cramped walled-up world. My dream is to explore...the outside world."

I met Connie's shocked gaze and smirked. He scowled but didn't tear his eyes away. I then left, as I predicted what was coming next. It was something I couldn't take part in for their sakes.

"Ha!" Jean sneered, lifting the serious atmosphere. "What the hell are you talking about? You must be the one with the soft noggin!"

"What!?"

The 6th Ranker gestured behind himself to reveal silent cadets with blank stares. "Look at them! Not a single person here agrees with you!"

"..." Eren frowned. "Okay, you're right. I got it..." Suddenly, he got up in Jean's face with a furious one. Jean mirrored the expression. "So shove off to the interior... Having a defeatist like you here on the front line is bad for morale!"

"Of course, that's just what I'm gonna do, but you want to go outside the wall, right? Go on ahead! The Titans you must love so much are waiting for you!" Jean retorted cockily.

Then the two of them relaxed and took three steps back from each other. "Pain in the ass..." the 5th spat.

"Heh..." his rival smirked.

Then, at the exact same time, they both swung their right fist and hit the other in the jaw firmly. I sighed and rested my palm on my forehead. "There they go again..." I grumbled irritatedly. "Do they ever get tired of this?"

"No...they don't." I blinked and looked over to the side to see Mikasa slowly getting up out of her chair. I chuckled a little, then looked back to the two rankers, who were arguing about something I wasn't paying much attention to.

I watched as Eren fought, and felt the typical twinge of jealousy that always sang in my body when I did. The way his legs would move around so gracefully...so easily...so fluidly...It would make me run a hand down the complicated machinery that covered my own leg and lament about that rueful day.

Like everything else I've been doing as a soldier-in-training, I've had to learn new ways to pass each subject. Even though hand-to-hand combat didn't have any points, the Commander insisted I learn a way to defend myself, since I was a 'lovely-looking young lady'. Annie, luckily, was assigned to help me since she excelled in hand-to-hand. It was how we became good friends, actually. She showed me how to hold my own with my leg on the 'STAND' setting, the 'WALK' setting, and even the 'JUMP' setting, which I only used in vertical maneuvering. I eventually developed a unique technique; a mixture of three different styles. Mikasa's pure power, Annie's clever tactics, and the strategies given by the Instructor himself.

Now, I'm the only one who can hold their own barehanded against Mikasa, most of the 104th Corps, and—when extremely lucky—Annie herself. I could even go up against Eren and win despite the brute strength that he carried behind his punches.

Reiner stood up abruptly, looking annoyed as he cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey, that's enough!" he yelled, though he knew that the two wouldn't listen to him. "Jean, did you forget what Eren's hand-to-hand combat score was!?"

As he spoke, Eren skillfully dodged a powerful punch coming from Jean, before charging forward with one twice as strong.

"It was the top of our class!"

But then I intervened. Using the force he was charging at Jean with, I stepped forward and lifted him over my shoulder by grabbing his fist and pulling. I then spun with the remaining momentum and threw him to Mikasa, who easily caught him with her right arm. She then hefted him over his shoulder and firmly held him.

"Wha—Mikasa!?" the 5th cried in alarm. I snickered as he flailed around in the 1st Ranker's iron grip, and he sent me a dirty look as I did so.

I heard Jean arguing with Franz and Hannah behind me, but I drew that conversation to the back of my mind as I walked away.

I wandered out of the drinking hall, my branded hand firm on the dial that rested on my hip. Right now, it was on the 'WALK' setting, and so I was moving forward slowly but surely to the one place I loved being at; the grounds above the lake.

Reiner and Bertolt once showed me during the night, and it was beautiful. I never stopped going there since. Every night, I'd sleep there, and no one would notice me gone by the night and there by the dawn.

I sat on the edge of the cliff and set my leg to 'RELAX' mode. Both of them dangled limply over the edge, and I let my back copy my metal leg.

"So... this is where you were going."

I turned sharply but sighed in relief when I realized it was only Annie. "Hey, Anne," I smiled weakly as I looked back at the glow of the lake. "What're you doing out here?"

"Looking for you," she replied, sitting next to me. "It's pathetic I couldn't find you for three years, and yet, on the last night, here you are." She brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes.

I chuckled. "It's not pathetic at all, Anne. I'm just really good at hiding."

A small huff sounded beside me, and I turned to her lips holding the hint of a smile. "Sure you are. You suck at that whenever you try and hide from the fake Titans the Instructor sends at us."

Blushing, I growled. "Hey! I can't fight head-on like you guys because of my leg!"

"Come on, Jade. That's a worthless excuse, and you know it," scowled Annie, and I froze when I realized she was being serious. Ashamed, I looked back at the lake once more. "You couldn't have earned the twelfth position unless you were good at killing the Titans."

"No...they were pity points and you know it," I grumbled, resting my cheek in my hand. "I'm nothing like you, Reiner, Eren, Jean, or Mikasa...Armin's better than me for crying out loud."

"Then how did you pass the final simulation?" the 4th Ranker said firmly, looking at me with her beautiful blue eyes. They were better than Krista's, but since Annie never smiled, hers never held the same bright light.

I sighed for the umpteenth time that day. "It must have been modified for me."

Suddenly, I felt something hard hit the back of my head. I flinched and knew it was Annie. "Stop acting like you're nothing. If you can fight bare-handed against me and get close to winning, you're very strong. If you hadn't lost your leg, you would be right up there with the beast."

"No...I wouldn't..." Using my knuckles, I pushed my long bangs out of my face. "Mika is perfect in everything. Reiner is amazing when it comes to earning points with vertical maneuvering. Bertolt could beat Mika if he had more confidence. You're flawless in combat and using the vertical maneuvering gear. Ren's got more tenacity than he knows what to do with. Jean could be a great leader if he knew how to cooperate with other people. Marco is a good strategist and never leaves out other opinions. Connie and Sasha both are good with their instincts and killing the 'Titans'. Krista's amazing with horses. And Ymir, who's in front of me in position terms, is good at adapting to her situations in a moment's glance. I don't have any of those skills."

"So what?" the blonde said, her eyes staring out at the lake. "You have plenty of those. You have Eren's stubbornness, otherwise, you wouldn't be as good as you are today. You have my combat since I taught you and all that. You have Marco's brain and Jean's leadership—to an extent, anyway. Your instincts, though not up to Connie or Sasha's level, are pretty advanced for the 104th. And you certainly know how to adapt. Your leg is proof."

I smiled. "Y'know, Annie, you really are a wonder," I grinned, nudging her gently with my shoulder. "You act all tough, but you're so kind. If your shell wasn't so hard on the outside, you would be Krista level."

For the first time in ages, I saw Annie's cheeks suddenly burn scarlet with embarrassment. "Sh-shut up..." grumbled the 4th Ranker. I smiled again and looked out at the lake. The light reflecting from the moon managed to jump all the way up to the cliff we sat on, casting images across the stone.

"Wanna stay here with me?" I asked her, right out of the blue. Her face, though still reddened, became softer in looks.

"If you insist," she mumbled, lifting her thick white hood over her hair before curling up next to me. I chuckled and ran my fingers through her bangs before removing her hood and undoing her hair from its tight bun.

It was very pretty hair, but she never let it down. As far as I knew, it was only when she was alone with me. She never let it down, even when she was alone altogether. It made me feel special, as I was the only close person with her. The only other people who she even talked with were Reiner and Bertolt because they came from the same village.

"I'm going to miss you, Anne," I whispered as her breathing evened out. "But if you want to go to the MP Brigade, I won't stop you."

"I'd never follow a suicidal blockhead like your friend," Annie murmured, only half-awake. "The Military Police was my goal all along, after all. I won't change it for some mechanic I happened to teach."

"Ha...that's just like you."

I fell asleep shortly after, just watching the gleam of the moon on the water. It was the last time I would ever see this view as a trainee. It was the last time I would ever see this view altogether.

But when I fell asleep, I regretted it.

 _'Bluejay, come with me!' An adult with blue eyes just like the girl's in front of them hissed viciously._

 _The girl tilted her head, looking at the small briefcase in her relative's left hand. 'What about Daddy?' She asked._

 _The blue-eyed person snarled. 'Just come with me!'_

 _'N-No!' Jade shot backward, ripping her wrist from the person's grip. 'I want Daddy!'_

 _'Tch...' Irritated, the person yanked her back into their chest and fumbled with the lock on the briefcase with a single hand. The other arm was occupied with holding the girl into their chest to muffle her screams._

 _'Daddy, Daddy!' Jade wailed, terrified of the shadow that stood before her. But she froze, stopped squirming and kicking and crying, and slowly looked to her arm with wide eyes._

 _There was a syringe—filled to the brim with translucent liquid—impaled in the crook of her arm._

"Ah!" My eyes snapped open to see Annie leaning over me. We were still on the cliff, and the night sky gave it away.

"Are you okay?" Annie asked me, her brows furrowed only a little to reveal her concern for me.

I sat up abruptly, holding my hands to my eyes. "Nngh...my head..."

"Do you need to see a medic, Jade?" asked the blonde.

"N-no, I'm fine..." I sighed, stretching out my arms to either side of me to release some of the tension in them.

Her delicate brows knit together, worrying me.

"Why are you crying, then?"


	3. A Familar Scenario

• **Jade Covert's POV •**

I polished the cannon whilst oiling the mechanics underneath. Since I was officially the 'professional mechanic' and 'expert of anything with gears in it', I took care of maintenance alongside the Garrison. This time, though, I had some of the other graduates help me out. Like Thomas, Mina, Eren, and Connie. I wore my ODM gear as per usual as the sun crashed down on us heavily from above. I longed to remove my jacket, but I would be violating the rules that way.

Connie was next to me, talking though I wasn't listening to him. Thomas and Mina were chatting casually, and Eren was helping me with the nitty-gritty fixes. Since he knew how to fix my leg from constantly helping me before, he was also fairly skilled in mechanics.

I tuned into the conversation as Eren shouted loudly. "What...!? You're gonna join the Survey Corps?"

"Naturally, the MP Brigade's a wiser choice, but still..." Connie was red in the face, and I was certain it wasn't from a sunburn. I sniggered, earning a glare my way. _Worth it._

"Your speech last night had an effect on him," said Thomas, smiling a little at both Eren and myself.

"Hehe..." I brushed a lock of hair out of my face, only for it to fall back into place and shield my left eye once again.

Connie's cheeks went an even darker shade. "W-wrong!" he objected shakily. "It...It was...That's right, it was Jean! I just don't wanna be in the same branch as that bastard!"

"One reason why I'm happy I wasn't in the top ten," I smirked, my voice sounding rather chipper and childish. "No Jean to even deal with! Ah, the benefits...!"

Mina suddenly hunched over, shaking with unreleased laughter. "Snrk..." her face was instantly as flushed as Connie's, though for different reasons. Her cheeks were swelling out, and her lips pressed together to prevent from dying in a bout of powerful snickering.

Thomas merely smiled again at our antics. "Don't be so embarrassed!" he grinned at Connie, who was avoiding our pointed gazes in his direction. "Sometimes even when you know what you _should_ do, you still hesitate to follow through." He then went a little red as he looked at me. "Besides, you're not the only one..."

"Haha, I'll see you there, Thomas," I giggled, and he blushed even further. He looked away, over the territory of the Lost Wall, scratching his head nervously. I gathered up my hip-length brown hair and tied it into a ponytail subconsciously as I watched him.

"He really likes you, you know..." Eren whispered into my ear, and I blinked.

"H-huh? What d-did you say?" I stammered, caught off-guard by the information. Accidentally releasing my long strands, I hurriedly and messily gathered them back up, tying them in a much firmer knot. The ends reached my middle back, and I ran my fingers through it shakily as I listened to Eren.

"Thomas," the 5th said once more. "He likes you a lot more than he lets on. Look at how much he's blushing." Eren pointed inconspicuously to the blonde in front of me, and I realized his cheeks were aflame. Remembering what Eren said, I blushed in response and focused my attention on the jammed gear in the shifting mechanisms.

"Pardon me, but..." I looked over to see Sasha, the 9th Ranker, with a dreamy look on her face. "I borrowed a little meat from the senior officers' private stock." She then produced a small hunk of dried meat from underneath her jacket.

"Sasha...you wanna get thrown into solitary?" Samuel asked, an eyebrow raised at her.

"You know, you really are dumb," hissed the 8th Ranker, recoiling in mild disgust. "Scary dumb."

"Let's split it up later," the 9th sighed, quivering with excitement as drool leaked from the corners of her lips. "Slice it, slap it between some bread...Heeheehee..."

Connie grumbled in annoyance, slapping his fists on his hips and leaning in close to his friend's face. "Put it back!" he scolded her loudly.

"That's right! Ever since our territory shrank, meat has become incredibly precious!" Mina added, sweating nervously. She handed me a wrench while speaking, and I moved to remove the metal plating holding the position-shifting mechanisms.

Sasha wiped her mouth, regaining some control at their words. But she moved to a small trunk, the one that belonged to our collective group, and placed the meat inside. "Don't worry," she said. "Once we recapture our territory...we'll be able to keep more cows and sheep again."

"Huh?" blinked Eren.

"I see your point," smiled Thomas. I turned to him, mildly perplexed. "It'll be like a celebration in anticipation of regaining Wall Maria. Once we eat it, all that's left is preparing ourselves for the worst!"

"Thomas..." I whispered. He turned red again.

I heard someone take in a deep, deep breath, and I looked to see Samuel inhaling deeply before he shouted "I'll eat that meat, too!"

"I-I'll have it too, so save some for me!" included Mina, looking nervous but happy.

"Don't forget me!" I laughed, smiling widely as I waved around my wrench above my head like a flag.

"What are you standing there speechless for, Eren?" Samuel asked, slapping his friend playfully on the shoulder. "You wanna get busted?"

Mina frowned jokingly at Samuel. "It's not lunchtime yet!"

Suddenly, I heard a loud click, and saw that the stuck gear I was working on had finally come loose. Giggling a little at the jokes my friends had made, I made to remove and oil it when, out of the blue...

 _CRACK!_

I whirled around, my hand instinctively on the dial of my leg when I saw a familiar face. A mouth like one of a corpse. Skinless features. Beady yellow eyes. Billowing steam leaking from each gap in the muscle.

"AAAAAAAAH!" Screaming, I felt a burst of burning air flood my skin and senses as I was shoved off the wall by the sheer blast. The shockwave rippled through my lungs, squeezing all of the air out of me with minimal effort.

"Jade!" Thomas yelled as he heard me. "Jade, where are you!?"

"It burns!?" Eren cried in alarm, not hearing my own inputs, as he was deafened by fear. "Everyone!"

"Switch to vertical maneuvering!" I shouted, going to shift and turn my dial to move my leg so I could aim the hook. But then I realized it wasn't turning, that I was grabbing the wrong dial. Looking upwards, I realized the ODM dial hadn't been secured properly, so it had flown out. It was above me, out of reach. "My dial!"

Suddenly, I saw a shadow fly above me, and I realized it was Thomas snatching my dial. I breathed out a sigh of relief, welcoming his arms as he wrapped them around me. He swerved out of the way using his own gear and gas, and I released myself from them as soon as I secured the proper dial for ODM. I hooked myself to the wall, relaxing my tensed shoulders as my fright subsided.

"Th-Thanks, Thomas," I thanked him breathlessly—a hand over my pounding heart—and he was blushing furiously in response.

"N-no proble—" He froze, and his gaze shot downwards all of a sudden. " _Samuel_!"

Tensing at the sharpness in his tone, I looked down and shrieked as I saw Samuel dropping to the ground like a swatted fly. Unconscious, with blood fluttering away from his forehead. _He must have gotten hit somehow when the Colossus knocked him down...!_ "Hey, Samuel!"

"Huh?! Sasha!" Eren yelped, looking at the 9th Ranker. Kicking off the wall while running downwards was Sasha Blouse, heading straight for Samuel before practically harpooning his leg with her own hook. Blood launched from the fresh wound, but he stopped falling. I stilled my shaking hand as I watched, and moved to grab the detached hilt of my single sword with it. Now was no time to be scared and shake my hands.

But then, a recognizable crashing sound roared in my ears, and I saw debris fly into the air.

"Mmgh...!" I covered my mouth to avoid throwing up everywhere when pictures and memories flooded my brain. I swallowed the lump in my throat and fought away the mental images of blood and teeth and dead faces. The whiteness of my leg bones, and the ripped, bloody flesh. The boulder towering above me. The soot-streaked face of my father. The blonde hair of my best friend.

Abruptly—and thankfully, for I would have vomited after a little while—Eren voice resonated clearly throughout the air. " _Sasha_!" he thundered, catching everyone's attention. "Take care of Samuel!"

"Right," she said quietly, her eyes determined. I was barely close enough to hear her above the continuous poundings of the steam against the solid stone of the Trost District walls.

" _Fixed Artillery Squad 4_!" the 5th Ranker still continued to roar out his orders. As the 5th, he had the most authority over all of us. Even Sasha and Connie, who were 8th and 9th respectively. " _Prepare for combat_!"

I caught on and gulped down my fear with a powerful emotion. The emotion of sadness, loss, bravery, and anger, mixed into one true feeling.

 _Revenge_.

" _The target is here_!" I cried with all of the power I had inside of me. My limbs trembled, but I didn't care. Turning the dial to 'UP', I pressed hard on the switches of the hilt and felt my contained gas rocket me forth. "The Colossus Titan!"

" _Don't let this chance get away_!" added Eren, beside me as we both forced our way up to the skinless mass of flesh and muscle and bone. "Only the Colossus Titan can destroy the wall!"

I gritted my teeth together, and felt my fear wash away, completely overwhelmed by the drive to avenge Kenny, Daddy, and Eren's mother. Armin's grandfather, and the other twenty percent of the human population that was lost in the attempt to regain Maria. "If we can just kill _him_...!"

I felt the judgmental and shocked gazes of the recently-graduated cadets of the 104th on my back. I simply lifted my sword, and let out a battle cry as I landed on the top of the wall. "Hello there..." Eren growled in a low, raspy voice. If looks could kill, the Colossus would be gone and evaporating away from existence now.

"It's been five years, huh...?" I whispered, straightening my back and leveling the Colossus with my sharpened glare. He seemed to notice it and looked right back at me with his pig-like eyes. I hissed and bared my teeth like an angry wolf. "Come at me!"

Like it understood my words, it raised an arm behind itself and threw his wrist at my direction. Using my gear, I shot upwards in sync with Eren as the Titan's hand wiped out the fixed artillery cannons mounted on the wall. I snarled and looked at my friend for orders. Seems as though the rest of the squad wasn't going to show, so it was up to us.

"Take the left!" he yelled above the sound of billowing steam. "I got the right! Say a random word if you're going in for the kill, and I'll back you up! It's the other way around for me, alright!?"

"Got it!" I replied. I aimed the spear of my ODM gear into the underbelly of his forearm, pulling myself forward and underneath him.

I flung myself upwards and used my sword as I spun viciously in a circle. I thought up a strange word, but then Eren beat me to it.

"Kenny!" he shouted, and I paused my attack. _Kenny...was killed by this beast..._

I raised up my singular weapon, squeezing down on the triggers as I blasted myself forth with a speed that hurt every fiber of my being. It was like I was set on fire, but the burn didn't make me cry or scream. Instead, it motivated me to keep going. I spun with as much speed and control as I could muster, the edge of my weapon aimed towards the nape of the Titan in a single blink.

But, before my blade hit home—simultaneous with Eren's own set of weapons against the Titan's neck—steam erupted from the cracks in the Colossus' exposed muscle. Since I'd been incredibly close, and my hook was firm within the flesh, the burning hot gas scorched my left cheek before I could lift my arms and protect my facial features.

"Waaah!" Pressing a hand to my skin, I felt myself suddenly drop. Even though I registered that, I was too stunned. When the steam dissipated, and my vision cleared, I realized how close to the ground I really was. Crying out in alarm, I moved my hands into their proper position and drove the hook into the wall of Rose.

It was only then that I realized the Colossus Titan was missing.

"J-Jade!" Looking up as I slowly scaled the wall, I saw Eren scanning around, trying to find me. "Jade, where are you!?"

"I'm down here!" I shouted back, and his face snapped to mine.

Cupping a hand around his mouth, he yelled. His voice was far louder now. "Hurry back up here! You're too close to the ground!"

"G-got it...!" Shaking my head to clear my muddled thoughts, I used the switches along the hilt of my weapon. When I caught up to Eren, who seemed to have finished a conversation with Connie and Thomas. As soon as he saw my face, his eyes widened.

"W-what happened, Jade?!" he asked, brushing my bangs back to reveal the burn wound on my left cheek. "It looks awful!"

"I was too close to the Colossus when he released that strange explosion of steam," I answered, gently pushing his hand away from my face. "You were lucky...you had a safe enough distance to not be completely scorched."

Eren sighed, his ocean-green eyes sad. "Okay. Let's hurry up. The gate's been broken, and Titans are going to do the same thing they did five years ago."

I let out a loud exhale. "I hope no one ended up like me," I murmured, my eyes downcast and staring at the gate. "The thought of a person going through such a powerful change in the span of seconds...It's overwhelming, and I know exactly what it feels like."

The 5th grunted, almost as if saying 'let's go', and he gave my wrist a quick tug before letting go and vanishing to the top of the wall. I clenched my teeth together and shoved the depressing throughs from my mind. _Now's not the time to be a worrywart._

When I made my way to the top, Eren had a pained expression on his face. Seeing Thomas and the others, I shielded the burn on my face with my bangs as I tuned into their conversation.

"...I'm sorry," the 5th apologized, looking somewhat dazed. "We let him get away..."

"What are you apologizing for?" the blonde asked my friend, smiling weakly at him. "We couldn't even move..."

Connie snarled violently, looking at me with disdain. I averted my gaze downwards, ashamed of letting the Colossus get away from us. He had been dancing in the palms of our trap, but it didn't snap shut quick enough when he disappeared. He was like a ghost. "Hey...Is this any time to chat!?" he cursed. "Part of the wall's already destroyed! If it isn't plugged up fast, we'll get another Titan incursion!"

I jumped a little when I heard the roar of another's voice. "What are you trainees doing!?" he shouted at us, and I took a nervous step back. Connie's gaze softened as he watched me. We all saluted, and I watched the Garrison soldier's face with little to no emotion. I didn't listen to their voices any further as I became drowned in my own thoughts. I didn't even notice us leaving until Thomas placed a large hand on my shoulder.

"You okay, Jade?" he asked me. I let my lips turn slightly upwards in a reassuring smile as I shook my head. It was a bad move, though, because he gasped as he caught a glimpse of my small injury. "Your cheek!"

"It's nothing," I said, brushing away his hand dismissively. "I was a little too close to the Titan when he evaporated, that's all."

"Still, it looks really serious. Here, I'll take you to the medics."

I snapped my gaze to him, but I knew I didn't look angry in the slightest. Still, my expression was full of enough emotion to make him gasp in surprise. "It's a mild wound. All of the other people down there, who were near the gate when it was kicked down...they need the medical help, not me. It's a pathetic excuse for an injury, whereas people could have been..." I coughed and finished my sentence. "Could have been unlucky enough to be like me..."

His eyes widened. "I'm so sorry!" he cried, looking completely alarmed. "I totally forgot you were in Shiganshina that day...!"

I chuckled and placed my backhanded blade into the scabbard where it belonged, releasing the attachable knife and leaving only the hilt in my hand. "It's fine. People seem to only remember that I'm the cripple anyways. They never remember the story."

Before Thomas could go and unravel more painful memories, I jumped off the wall—on the not-infested side, of course—and sped away. I had to follow protocol, and that meant going to report back to HQ. The blonde followed after me but didn't so much as peep the whole way there. He was being mindful of my own sanity, and I was grateful for that.

* * *

• **Third Person's POV •**

Jade had supplied and finished her tasks before anyone else, which was a big surprise. Because of her leg, she was often the latest one to arrive. But with the chaos around the headquarters of Trost District, she was the only one with a level head.

Or at least she tried to be.

Unlike the other trainees, she wasn't vomiting. She wasn't crying out things like 'why did it have to be us' or 'I'm going to die'. She didn't cry. She only restocked her fuel for her scabbards and adjusted the functions of her leg.

And in the short period of time she had been provided with, she managed to even get some spare time to sharpen the blades on the moving metal plates. When she came out and into the courtyard, a few panicking people stopped and stared. She was so calm that it was terrifying. The aura that she so effortlessly exuded made anyone around her turn to see what monster had just wandered in. She was deathly serious.

And, if Jade had been serious during the final graduation test, she could have easily taken the position of 5th.

"Uuurrggh!" Jean—the 6th Ranker—groaned, looking unnaturally pale. "Why did it have to be today...!? I'm supposed to go into the interior tomorrow!"

But his attention was caught by the shadowed look on Jade's face after he watched yet another trainee spill their lunch onto the stone floorings. She looked...scary. And it was understandable.

Her cheek was burned, leaving it a raw, red-looking color and covered with rough scabs. Her hair was tied up neatly, leaving only her bangs out of place. Her eyes carried a sort of sharpness he'd never seen before. Her posture was completely erect, yet she looked relaxed. There was no emotion present on her face, making her look like a true soldier for once. But then he realized the true change.

Her eyes. He swallowed at the very sight of the rage within their sapphire depths.

Meanwhile, Eren and Mikasa were fighting angrily with each other. But when the two of them finally went their separate ways, they both caught sight of the cripple.

"Jade..." Mikasa whispered. The 1st Ranker knew that Jade would reply with the same amount of force that Eren did, but now she didn't even want to confront the girl. The aura that wafted off her in powerful waves...it made her completely unapproachable.

When she got really serious, she was at odds with Mikasa in terms of skill. Not even a Titan could take her down easily. She'd slaughter at least fifteen before she was even touched with a meaty finger.

Eren, however, was worried. Despite Jade's skill when purely focused on a single task, she could still have been taken down regardless. So, even though the air she gave off made his hair stand on end, he moved over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Jade..." he said quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replied. "I just want to get this over with so I can keep those children from ending up as useless as me."

Jean was open-mouthed at her statement. The way she spoke about their upcoming horrors made it sound like it was going to be quick and easy. How could she even speak in such a calm, almost casual tone when death was knocking on her door?

But then, she paused in her tracks. "Wait. I need to talk to somebody. Can you and the rest of our squad wait for a little bit before we head out?"

The 5th blinked in mild surprise. "Okay, sure. Armin and I will be over with Thomas and Mina by the gas supply, okay?"

"Got it."

The brown-haired lass then turned on her heel and headed straight for Jean. He was still distressed over the timing and the chances of his survival, but when he saw Jade coming straight for him with that deadly gleam in her eye, he began walking away. But she forcefully hit him with her shoulder and grabbed him by his collar. Jean gulped under her fiery gaze as she set her leg to 'STAND'.

"Jean..." she hissed, her voice using that same sharp tone. For once, it sent a shiver down his spine. Perhaps it was the eyes, however. "Whatever you do out there...don't betray the others for your sake. I want you to be there for them, and be a good leader."

The 6th was taken aback. He was double her score, and yet she had the nerve to tell him what to do!? He gritted his teeth together and shoved her hand off his jacket.

"Don't talk down to me, _12th Ranker_ ," he growled in reply, his anger briefly flaring. But it settled right back down and became guilt when he really did look into her blue eyes. Behind that toughened shell, she looked afraid. But it wasn't the same sort of fear he'd been seeing all around him.

It was fear for others, not for herself. How appropriate for someone like her.

"I never was," she said simply, taking a step back with her good leg. "I just don't want you—or any of the others—to die. That's all."

Jade then turned around, her ponytail swishing as she lifted her chin. Her right was firm on the dial resting against her hip, and she switched it to 'WALK'.

Jean looked away, his jaw still clenched tightly. _Freak._

* * *

• **Jade Covert's POV •**

I stood on the roof, waiting with the rest of my team for the signal to go.

"Armin..."

I turned my head uninterestedly as Eren began conversing with Armin. It was only when Mina sassily placed her hands on her hips and smirked at the two of them.

"Sorry to burst your bubble..." she cackled. "But a lot of people from our class are applying for the Survey Corps!"

Thomas smiled and placed a finger on Eren's chest tauntingly. "You left me in the dust before, Eren, but this time I'm keeping up! And to make it interesting, let's see who can slay more Titans!"

"You're on, Thomas!" the 5th grinned. "As long as you don't fudge your numbers!"

I chuckled and felt their eyes snap towards me. "None of you will be able to keep up with me...rookies."

Eren crossed his arms arrogantly. "Oh really, _12th Ranker_?"

Unlike when Jean said my rank, I actually felt rather happy. When Eren mocked me, I felt the urge to prove him wrong.

"You haven't seen me fight seriously, though," I replied with a smirk. "I might have one sword, but I'm triple your power. Remember who helped kick your ass last night?"

"Ooh, ouch!" Mina laughed—applauding—and I laughed in return.

 _I wish things could always stay this light-hearted._

"Squad 34, advance!" a Garrison soldier yelled all of a sudden, cutting our fun short. But the drive and mood remained.

 _Where we would laugh and joke with each other without a care in the world._

Eren raised his sword high above his head. " _Let's go_!" he shouted, voice full of spirit and vigor.

 _When times weren't hard, and death didn't weigh upon our minds._

" _YEAH!_ " the rest of our squad responded, their hearts resonating as one. I shifted my dials and moved into the ODM model. My spears flew out from either side, and I was launched into the air. 'RIGHT' and 'LEFT'. 'LEFT' and 'RIGHT'.

 _But time flies when you have fun._

Whilst rocketing through the open space, my eyes caught on something up ahead, and I felt the mood drop thousands of meters before crashing into the ground known as 'reality'. "Wha...that's..." Titans swarmed ahead, attacking the soldiers. "They're roping the middle guard into the vanguard!?" Eren cried incredulously.

 _And when that fun is over, all that's left is a barren, cold wasteland._

Mina swallowed visibly. "All those Titans already..." she whimpered beside me, her grip on her weapons tightening. I myself held my single sword in a firmer grip at the sight, and I let my serious side take over. My eyes narrowed.

 _With no escape or hope until the warmth of friends returns._

"What's going on!?" Samuel's twin brother shouted in confusion. "Usually, our peers in the vanguard hog all the action..."

 _And even they will abandon you, regardless of whether or not it was their fault._

"Even though not much time has passed...Has the advance guard collapsed?" Thomas looked pale, and I adjusted my flying trajectory so that I was on his left side. I was close as I pressed a comforting but branded hand on his shoulder. A risky move, since I almost always had my right hand on my dial, but I wanted to comfort him.

 _It's hard once you're trapped._

"We'll be fine, alright, Thomas?" I smiled at him with the most sincerity I could muster. It seemed to have worked, as he clearly relaxed with a small blush on his face. But then my eyes snapped up as I heard a single word be shouted by the 5th Ranker.

 _You have no place to go, and no reason to live._

"DODGE!"

 _Until they come back, you're stranded in an endless circle._

I pressed hard on the triggers of my hilt, flying in the left direction with lightning speed. But my heart pounded when I remembered that I had a mechanical leg. It worked more perfectly and more quickly than a normal person. I screamed in horror as I counted our ranks. One person was missing, and I had a good idea of who it was.

 _And if they never come back, the light of your life is gone._

"Sh-shit..." Thomas whimpered as the Titan drew back its head. He was caught in its mouth. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and I placed a hand over my heart. My nails dug into the fabric and clawed at the skin underneath.

 _Stomped into the dust, like embers that have lost their spark._

" _Thomas_!" I shrieked at the same time as Eren. But I watched painfully as he was swallowed whole. "He's..."

 _It's those times when you remember how life would be if the fire never stopped burning._

"W..." I wanted to turn so badly and see what Eren was doing. But my eyes were stuck on the Titan's back. _T-Thomas..._ "WAIT!"

 _How precious the warmth would be, and how close you would hold it tight._

"No! Don't go off on your own!" Mina shouted, tears rolling down her face. " _Eren_!"

 _You would never let it go. Never, until the day you die._

"There's another one below!" That caught my attention, and I snapped my head in Eren's direction to see a short monster—in Titan standards—directly underneath as the 5th Ranker made a leap between buildings. My heart stopped as it jumped upwards and clamped its jaws around his left leg.

 _But, you would never do so until you know what it feels like to be cold._

I fell to my knees, right beside Armin. My metal leg remained stiff in the 'STAND' position, leaving me uncomfortable. But I was so stunned that I didn't care. He would end up like me. Even worse, perhaps, since he didn't lose it at a young age. I hunched over and began to sob. I didn't even watch as my comrades were all eaten. I didn't watch as the blonde next to me was gently lifted off the rooftop and held over a Titan's mouth.

 _Once you lose the heat that you were always surrounded by, you're left shivering with no place to go._

I felt something lift me by the back of my jacket, but I was as unresponsive as Armin. But something strummed a tune inside of me. Strangely enough, I began humming softly. Inside the eternal darkness within the belly of the beast, I imagined a head of a blonde awaiting me there and felt a small smile touch my lips.

 _You're left by yourself, and you can only cry to feel the ghost of heat on your cheeks. Just to remember what it felt like when you weren't alone._

"J... _JADE_!"

 _But, someone can still come. Find you, light a new candle, and wrap your shoulders in a blanket._

I didn't respond to Armin. I don't know why. The thought of finally being reunited with Kenny, Joseph, and Daddy was just too much to resist. I was desperate and broken. I couldn't do anything else. I had reached the end of my limits. I was ready to be back with them.

 _I'm somebody who wishes to be that light in the dark._

At some point, I heard Eren roaring in rage. Perhaps Armin had been swallowed. I was amazed at my nonchalant demeanor in that moment—why was I not caring about what was happening to friends who'd had my back since day one? Maybe I was just done. Maybe I had just embraced death. Before I knew it, I was dropped down the slimy gullet of the Titan who'd gotten hold of me.

 _But I couldn't do that if I tried. I only know how to fall short and fail other's hopes._

Acid filled my legs with a painful feeling, but the metal and cloth held strong. Tears filled my eyes as emotions came flooding back. "I did...fail everyone...Didn't I?"

 _And yet, one face was like the sun. It glowed with eternal happiness, and it lit up a radius of thousands of miles. It made me feel that heat once more._

I choked on my sobs, and I covered my ears with my hands to block out the noise of my own terror. "K-Kenny...Jojo...D...Daddy...!"

 _I wished to bring him the vengeance he can't retrieve for himself._

My eyes fell on the mark branded into my palm as I went to smash my dial. The mark of the bluejay. My hand stilled.

 _Now I will fulfill the duty I assigned myself all those years ago. To keep that light alive and flickering brightly._

I sniffled, trying to keep myself upright. Tears blurred my vision altogether. "I-I...can't..."

 _And that light...resides within me. A cool, blue light that would soothe those it shone upon._

"...give...IIIIINNNNN!" I screamed the word at the very top of my voice. I was sure that someone outside could hear me as I screamed and screamed and screamed. But I paused as something occurred to me, and felt a smirk curve my lips upwards.

 _I am a bluejay._

"And it's time for me to spread my wings."


	4. Lost Wanderers

• **Third Person's POV •**

 _Eren...Mina...Thomas...Jade...Mylius...Nac..._

Armin was lost in thought, completely thunderstruck. He kept repeating those names over and over in his head, and his heart would pound painfully whenever Jade's or Eren's names were listed. It was an unending whirlpool, and it was messing with his head. The spinning wouldn't stop. It was infinite.

The image of Jade being dropped into the Titan's mouth with a smile on her face was a dementing thought. The image of Eren with a missing leg and blood staining his face, then being swallowed down the Titan's gullet was even more so.

But, why had Jade been smiling, he wondered. It wasn't the kind of smile where you would be at peace, or when you were somewhat psychotic either. It was just...a smile. A smile of relief, perhaps? Had she still been her selfless self at the time, and seeing him be thrown out of the Titan's mouth had comforted her in a way?

And Eren. Why had he thought Armin would be worth saving? Worth tossing away his life for? All Armin had was an imagination. Whereas Mikasa had strategy and skill, Jade had tenacity and adaptivity, and Eren had idealism and unleashed fury...all Armin had was a clever mind. _How pathetic._

All of the children from Shiganshina were quite unlucky when you thought about it. All of them had their hometown broken into and were the first people to be raided by the Titans. But there was more, individually speaking.

Mikasa, who lost both her parents in a single robbery of her home. She lost her innocence that day, as well as she'd recently lost Eren, though she didn't know he was dead yet.

Armin, who was constantly bullied and treated unfairly, as well as he naturally lacked the normal physical build of his peers.

Eren, who was always an outcast and had no particular skills. He always had to work to get his piece, while his sister would outshine him in her perfection.

And Jade, who was the unluckiest of them all. She lost her brother to the Survey Corps. Her mother abandoned her a month before the Wall even fell. Her father and best friend were slaughtered before her very eyes, and she lost her leg in the shattering of Wall Maria. She was forced to struggle in the training corps, without the automatic mobility of her right leg.

 _And yet she smiled at the end._

"—min! Armin! WAKE UP!"

Blinking in surprise, the unrelenting spin of morbid thoughts paused as he met Connie's hazel eyes. "...!"

"Connie..." he whispered, still somewhat dazed. _What had I been thinking about?_

"Are you hurt?" the 8th Ranker fussed, checking him for injuries as he ignored Armin's initial response. "Hey! Where's your squad!?"

Armin blinked again, this time much more slowly as he fought to clear the mess of his mind. "Squad...?" he breathed.

"Come on, get a hold of yourself!" scolded Connie. "Why are you alone!?" He pulled back his hand in disgust, looking at it with a scowl. "And you've got slime all over you...! What the hell happened?!"

The blonde's eyes widened. "...Ah..." Then the flashes came.

 _Mina losing her head first, then gradually being swallowed piece by piece._

 _Thomas sobbing as the Abnormal gulped him down his throat._

 _Nac being torn apart before being eaten slightly and the rest was tossed to the side._

 _Mylius having his limbs ripped from their sockets and screaming all the while._

 _Jade smiling weakly as she was dropped into the mouth of a long-haired Titan._

 _Eren stretching out his hand, blood tarnishing his cheeks before the bearded Titan clamped its jaws shut over his arm._

Digging his fingernails into his scalp, Armin let out a despairing wail of horror. Connie jumped in shock at the awful noise and stepped forward to comfort and silence him. "Armin...!" he yelled. But the Last Ranker was on his knees with tears falling down his face at an alarming rate, unable to hear anything aside from the screams.

"You..." his voice sounded dry and cracked completely, which made the sound all the worse. "...useless bastard! _Die_!" He began hitting himself viciously on the head.

"Hey...Calm down! Armin!" Connie restrained his friend, pinning his arms down to either side. "Where is everyone!?"

"Oh, leave it, Connie!" the 11th Ranker, Ymir, grumbled in annoyance. "They've been wiped out except for this guy!"

"Shut up! Armin didn't say anything about that!" The short cadet threw his arm out to the side in anger at Ymir's statement, as if tossing away her harsh hypothesis from sight.

"Look around! It's obvious, idiot!" snapped Ymir. "And we don't have any more time to pamper him!"

"Why is Armin the only one who made it!?" the 8th was struggling to understand the gravity of what was happening. So many things were happening so quickly.

"They probably thought he was already a corpse," replied Ymir, almost heartlessly as she continued to look over the buildings for signs of nearby Titans. "I'm sorry he encountered multiple Titans...but rescuing this loser isn't worth the sacrifices of Eren and the rest."

Armin continued to fight against the urge to let the tears fall down his face. Ymir was right, in his opinion. Eren was so much better than Armin was, and yet he traded his life for the blonde. Armin wasn't worth Eren's life, but Eren had seemed to think otherwise.

"Hey, you stupid bitch..." Connie's swords flashed as he held them up threateningly to Ymir's turned back. "How about I make it so you never say a damn word aga—"

"Both of you, stop it!" Krista intervened, tears in her eyes threatening to fall as she forced herself between the two arguing cadets. " _Everyone_ is frazzled! I mean, suddenly a bunch of our friends are dead...Of course we're upset!"

"That's my Krista!" Ymir suddenly giggled as she drew the 10th Ranker in close with one arm and kissed the side of her head. "After this mission is over, marry me!"

Connie shook his head disappointedly. "True...she's clowning around even more than usual..." he sighed. He then knelt to the ground in front of Armin and held out his hand for the blonde to take. "Anyway, we can't just leave him here."

Armin froze when he saw Connie's upturned palm reaching gently for him. It reminded him so much of...

"Can you stand, Armin?" asked Connie.

Tears welled in his eyes, and he stood up abruptly before turning. "I'm sorry I caused problems!" he yelled, his blue eyes firmly squeezed tight. "I'll meet up with the rearguard!"

"Armin!" cried the 8th Ranker, but Armin had already started working his ODM gear, and flew off. Connie knew that the blonde had heard him, but had pointedly ignored him and left.

"Let's go, Connie. Orders are to move forward..." said a fellow squadmate, and Connie sighed.

 _It's hard to believe that Eren and Jade are dead...I thought they would go on a rampage, but were they really taken down so easily...?_

* * *

Using her ODM gear, the black-haired 1st Ranker seemed to effortlessly soar through the sky. She was like an angel if it weren't for the shadows cast upon her face and the lightless look in her eyes. But she only had her mind set on one goal; protection. And not for herself.

When her eyes landed on a fairly crowded rooftop, her arms stiffened ever so slightly. Mikasa had never even been aware of this little habit until Jade pointed out when she asked about the 1st Ranker's past when they were children. Before the walls collapsed on them.

Shaking her head to clear her mind of the unnecessarily depressing and murky thoughts, she contemplated to herself as to what the recently-graduated trainees were doing lying around like sunbathing cats.

 _'They must have heard the bell that signaled temporary evac...'_ the cadet wondered to herself, perplexed by their actions. ' _Why aren't they scaling the wall...!?_ '

"Shit!" someone suddenly cursed aloud, making Mikasa's head snap in that direction.

' _Huh...? That's...!_ '

"What do we do!?" the scrawny cadet yelled. On further inspection, Mikasa realized with a small start that it was Connie and Jean arguing loudly.

"There isn't anything _to_ do," Jean grumbled, sitting down with a slumped posture. "The order to evacuate finally came...but we're out of gas and unable to climb the wall...I guess we're all dead, thanks to those cowards!" His left hand tightened into a fist, while the other rested over his eye. "I can understand their feelings...that they lost the will to fight...But they shouldn't have abandoned their mission and holed up in HQ! The Titans are gathering, so we can't over there to replenish our gas!"

"Okay then!" hissed the 8th Ranker, tired of the lack of response. "The only thing we can do is risk it all to kill the swarming Titans over there! The result's gonna be the same if we just sit around here! The Titans will be all over us here, too!" He pounded his fist against the gas canister that lay atop his scabbard. "And if we keep trying to pointlessly escape, it'll just waste the little gas we _do_ have left! Once our mobility is totally gone, then it really is all over!"

Jean scoffed quietly to himself, unaware of Mikasa's coming presence. "You're using your head for once, Connie..." the 6th sighed. "But do you really think we can take them on with this many troops? Most of the advance guard has been wiped out...Who of us in training corps can take command of a desperate operation like that? Well...I guess that doesn't matter since even with a leader, we wouldn't be able to do anything against the Titans..."

Mikasa drowned their voices out of their head as she landed by Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt, who were quietly conversing amongst each other. "Mikasa!?" one soldier said. "I thought you were with the rearguard!" cried another. But the cadet pointedly ignored them as she ran up to the long-haired blonde girl.

"Annie!" Mikasa shouted. The blue-eyed girl turned, looking as bored as always. "I think I have a grasp of the situation...and I apologize for bringing my personal feelings into this..." Nervous, the cadet's arms tightened further. "But have you seen Eren's squad?"

"No, but some squads made it over the wall..." replied the 4th Ranker, brushing her long bangs out of her right eye. There was a small glimmer of brief fear in her eyes, but she clearly didn't show it all that much. She was worried for Jade, but no one else knew this. Not even Annie herself.

"Now that you mention it," spoke up Reiner, and Mikasa turned to face the bulky 2nd Ranker. "Armin over there was from the same squad."

Joy filled her insides at the sound of Armin being okay, and she sharply turned on her heel to run for her childhood friend. "Armin!" she raised her voice ever so slightly. She fell to her knees in front of him, trying to see past the thick curtain of bangs over his forehead hiding his eyes. "Armin..." she said with a much more calm voice than before. "Are you hurt? Are you alright?"

Shaky, the blonde managed a small nod.

Mikasa stood up, a small and satisfied smile on her face, then looked around as the expression instantly faded away. "Where's Eren?" But then her ears picked up the sounds of choked and stifled sobs. Her head swiftly turned to face Armin once more and was taken aback to see tears streaking down his cheeks.

With fists balanced unevenly on his fully-bent knees, he hunched back over. He was obviously trying not to break down into a fit of endless crying. "In training corps...Squad 34..." He sniffled loudly and continued to force out words that seemed like poison to him as he spoke. "Thomas Wagner...Nac Tius...Mylius Zeramuski...Mina Carolina...Jade Covert...Eren Jaeger..."

Annie's jaw dropped, as did Jean's. Connie guiltily looked away, as he had been concealing the information from his fellow cadets.

Annie looked down and realized with a start that her hands had instantly become fists at Jade's name. She relaxed, but the shock was tormenting her on the inside. She knew what Armin was going to say next, and forced herself to take even breaths.

"Those six carried out their mission...and died bravely in battle..." Armin continued, trying not to look at Mikasa for fear of her rage.

"Oh, no..." Sasha whispered heartbrokenly.

Jean was fighting to understand Armin's words. Jade and Eren were dead. He didn't know the others in their squad all that well, but the loss of the 5th and 12th Rankers was still strong enough to mentally wind him.

The suicidal blockhead whom he argued with constantly was dead. Eaten by the very things he swore to kill himself.

And the cripple who always had a smile on her face, despite her awful situation. She would argue with short-fused Connie, befriend unsociable Annie, and joke with everyone else. There were only three times when he'd seen her angry, and one of those times was right before she left as a member of Squad 34.

"So almost everyone in Squad 34 was wiped out..." a faceless cadet murmured in the crowd.

"And the same thing will happen to us if we clash with the Titans..." another whisper-yelled, afraid of the top ten rankers around them. The top ten were in their own special group, with a few outsiders like Ymir and Jade. Any slight or insult could cause one of their tops to blow over with fury. But it seemed they were too shocked to respond.

"I'm sorry, Mikasa..." sobbed Armin, unable to conceal the trembles that now wracked his whole body. "Eren...gave his life to save me." He hiccuped before continuing. "I couldn't...do anything. I'm sorry..."

But his breath was caught in his throat when he felt a warm hand enclose over his own. He looked up with red eyes to see Mikasa with a blank yet shielded expression. Her eyes—though the change was subtle—had lost their light, and it scared and relaxed Armin at the same time. "Armin..." she whispered, her lips moving slowly. "Calm down. This is no time to be getting sentimental." Tightening her fingers ever so slightly, she pulled gently on his fingers and stood at the same time he did. "Now, stand up!" Her voice didn't waver in the slightest.

Armin could only watch with an unhinged jaw as she turned around, the warmth of her hand gone so suddenly. "Marco..." the 1st Ranker said, walking to the edge of the building whilst passing the man she was talking to. "If we eliminate the Titans that are swarming around HQ, we'll all be able to fill up on gas and scale the wall. Am I wrong?"

"N-no, you're right," confirmed Marco. "B-but even with you there...against that many of them—"

"I can do it," Mikasa abruptly cut him off, before raising her sword and turning to the shell-shocked cadets. "I'm strong," she announced with a loud, respect-commanding tone. "Stronger than all of you...Extremely strong! And that's why...I'll be able to drive the enemy out of there...Even on my own."

Then, a small fleeting sneer met her lips, before vanishing right away. She pointed her sword at the graduate trainees mockingly. "But I guess all of you are useless...cowardly...pathetic...It's really too bad." Mikasa smiled to herself for another brief second, feeling proud of herself. "Stay here...and suck your thumbs...while you watch me."

"Mikasa...? What are you saying!?" yelled a girl, her face instantly white as a sheet. "You mean to engage all of those Titans yourself? It's impossible..."

Mikasa glared at them out of the corner of her eye, though her expression remained apathetic. "If I can't do it...I'll just die," the 1st Ranker said calmly. "But...if I win, I live..."

"And if I don't fight...I can't win."

With that final message, she gripped her swords tightly in her fingers before forcing her legs to carry her forward as she jumped and landed neatly on another roof before continuing her path. She kept running, and the others were left in her dust.

"You've got to work on your phrasing..." Jean grumbled, earning curious glances from his peers. "I bet you meant for that to get us fired up..." He sighed loudly, before whispering one last thing. "Eren...Jade...this is your fault."

The 6th Ranker then shoved his sword into the air and looked over his shoulder at the other stunned cadets. "Hey!" he thundered, grabbing everyone's attention. "Were we taught to one of our own fight alone!? All of you really will make cowards of yourselves!" He then took off running.

"Well, who'd have thought..." breathed Reiner, smiling to himself before taking off. Bertolt and Marco sighed in worry before following.

Annie looked at her hands, tight around her hilts. An unknown fury washed over her, and she pressed her lips into a straight line. "This is for you, Jade." Her feet began flying to carry her forward.

Everyone dashed forward in response, their voices resonating as one. As well as singing for the fallen Squad 34.

"Hurry! Follow Mikasa!" Sasha yelled whilst shooting forward with her ODM gear.

"Anyway, let's make this a short, decisive battle!" added Jean, pushing past the redhead. "And get to headquarters before our gas runs out!"

"But Mikasa is amazing..." the 8th Ranker murmured in awe, only Armin close enough to hear him. "How can she move that fast...?"

Armin kept his eyes pinned on the 1st Ranker's lightning-fast form. ' _Actually...she's burning up too much gas!_ '

As if to confirm his suspicions, Mikasa flew forward and perfectly sliced open the weak point of a nearby Titan, before blasting far out of range once again. The gas from her gear created open clouds of mist around her as she maneuvered across corners and over rooftops.

' _She'll run out soon! No matter how skillful we are, without mobility, we're helpless..._ ' The blonde watched her expression, and pity twisted his heart painfully. Her lips were tight together and her eyes were completely hollow of emotion.

' _I knew it..._ ' he thought to himself, his fingers pressing rhythmically on the switches lining the hilts of his swords. ' _She isn't cool-headed like she always is. She's trying to banish her grief by taking action...but at this rate...Before long, she'll—_ '

Almost as if on cue, the girl dropped from the air when a loud sputtering sounded from her gear. Her eyes didn't even widen in surprise, as she collapsed and fell from sight. Her lips moved, but no one heard her words.

" _Mikasa_...!" screamed Armin.

The girl didn't respond, and she disappeared. She was gone, and her mind was lost. _I'm just wandering without you at my side. I miss you...Where are you? I need you...but you're not here to guide me. You've just left me to wander alone...That's so cruel of you, Eren._


	5. Gathering Broken Shards

● **Third Person's POV**

Mikasa huffed and puffed, her fire-hot breath misting around in the cold air around her. She stared up at the sky, her swords still firm in her palms. She was thankful for the soft landing she'd made atop the cloth that protected a small shop from any weather conditions. But she lifted her right hand, which held her hilt. And a broken blade was still attached to the pistol-like mechanism.

' _Again...This again..._ ' she let herself slip down off the roof of the small shop, and she stumbled into a kneeling position in the center of a thin street. The stones were colder than ice against her knees, even under the fabric of her white pants. ' _I lost my family again..._ '

While the girl was wallowing in her depressing yet heartwarming thoughts and memories, she dazedly noticed three Titans approaching her. She didn't care, either. She could die for all she cared. A world without her family was cold. Even with the scarf that was wrapped around her neck, she was shivering like she was neck-deep in a pile of snow. And her last bit of family had vanished, leaving the room dark and empty. Silent, with no hint of sound.

The Titans continued to walk towards the small shape, ignoring the miserable aura that she exuded.

One was a 15-meter class, with a round body shape, a large protruding belly, and fat legs. But it wore a stupid, almost goofy grin on its face. Short brown hair covered its scalp, and its eyes were closed firmly. However, it still walked properly. Meaty palms reached for her direction, though the beast was still rather far away. The thuds of its wet footsteps rang loudly in Mikasa's ears, but she dulled the sound to the back of her mind.

Another was also 15 meters high, only it had a much more chiseled body lined with solid and thick muscle. It had a lipless mouth, pale skin for gums, and a strangely set jaw. Its sunken-in eyes were a familiar ocean green color, and it had long blackish-brown hair that was messy on top of its head. But its eyes were pinned on the Titan in front of it, and not Mikasa. The latter didn't dwell on that all too much.

The last one was a 13 or 14-meter class, as well as the strangest of the three. Mikasa had never seen a Titan like that one before. Unlike any other Titan known so far, this one had the body of a woman. It, too, was lined with flawless muscle like the one at its side. It had long brown hair that acted similarly to Mikasa's, due to the large clump that hung right in its face. But, what truly caught Mikasa's attention was the unique, almost unworldly ears. There was a white, almost metallic disc where its ears should have been, and blades poked out from underneath, making them look uncannily like wings. This Titan had no mouth, and instead the skin layered over it like a gag. It had shockingly dark sapphire eyes, and they were also firmly stuck on the fat Titan in front of it. The eyes were sunken in deeply, showing off the bone structure and every single facial contour along the top half of its face. Its fingers were sharp in shape, and also silver in color, unlike the pale composition of the rest of its body.

Lying on her knees, Mikasa looked up with a reminiscent smile, ignoring the slowly approaching danger. ' _It was a good life..._ ' she thought, before looking back down at her lap. She smiled again, this time more sadly. She wanted to cry, but the girl couldn't bring herself to. The faucets in her eyes were tightly sealed.

The blade of her broken sword was positioned delicately in her lap, shards cracked off the end. Her fingers were wrapped loosely around the tail of it, just barely ghosting against the triggers of her anchors. It was small, about the size of a large kitchen knife.

Just like the one from those years ago.

 _The girl, sitting on her knees with a bloodied knife lying in her lap, raised the knife up to look at it. The shape intrigued her, with a dull tip but a deadly edge. It shifted around loosely, and it glinted in the light._

 _'Fight!'_

 _Looking up, she saw a boy about her age. Pressed against the wall, his eyes burned with life as he stared down at her, begging her to fight for her life. 'The only way to win...is to fight!'_

 _Slowly, she placed a foot in front in response to his encouraging voice and pushed herself up with her heels before holding the knife in a perfect position at her side. Her hand was firm around the hilt._

Just like the same girl was now, years from that day.

Tears welled from Mikasa's eyes as she shook violently from the memory, and she bit her lip. ' _I'm sorry, Eren..._ ' she choked on her nearing sobs, bending her knees to balance herself. ' _I can't...give up..._ ' A drop began to tumble down her cheek, and it stung like acid against her skin. She finally wept. ' _If I die now...I won't be able...to remember you..._ ' She raised her blade and sucked in a breath. ' _So no matter what...I'm going to win!_ '

"WAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" she screeched a war cry, her eyes finally filling with the light they always carried.

 _Boom._

Like thunder, the sound of flesh hitting flesh crashed in her ears. The sound rolled around the alley, creating echoes of great volume. Wincing at the loudness of the noise, she jumped into the air at the force that echoed off the punch. She was sent flying, landing on her side before covering her ears with her hands. One of them still gripped the small blade tightly.

' _Wait...a punch?_ '

Looking up sharply, she saw the 15-meter class with the offset jaw charge forward with a terrifying roar before ripping its arm off and stomping furiously on the Titan's body. The 'enemy's' jaw was torn away from its face, and the green-eyed Titan continued to scream and shriek with pure fury as it killed its own kind.

' _I'm just completely...confused,_ ' Mikasa thought to herself, her hands still over her ears to protect them from the raw noise. ' _I've never heard of...one Titan attacking another. But I'm also slightly...uplifted..._

' _Because this scene looks to me like the fury of the human race incarnate._ '

The Rogue Titan, as Mikasa was beginning to mentally call it, kept roaring to the heavens above before slowly ending it when the one with the feminine body and bladed ears gently nudged the side of it with the knuckles of its hand. ' _It's like...they're almost human. It's like they're...working together..._ ' Mikasa realized, her eyes widening further—if possible—at the friendliness between the Rogue Titan and the Bladed Titan. They began walking away, towards another 15-meter class.

Still dazed, Mikasa barely registered a large force ramming her in the spine. The shock crawled up to the back of her head, and she gave a small gasp of pain as she saw Armin with a determined look on his face. He forced the black-haired girl upwards using his ODM gear, and soon they both crashed harshly on a roof. "Ungh!" the girl grunted as she caught herself on her hands and knees.

"Mikasa!" Armin shouted, terror making his voice rise several octaves. "You fell because you ran out of gas, right!? Are you injured!?"

The 1st Ranker shook her head to clear it of her murky thoughts. "...I'm fine," she confirmed, looking up as a shape came flying in. It was Connie.

"Hey! We gotta get a move on!" the 8th panicked, his eyes pinned ahead on the three Titans. "This doesn't look good! We've got three 15-meter class Titans right there!"

"No..." Mikasa coughed, looking up at the strange Titans with a pained expression. Her statement caught the two cadets off guard. "Those two Titans..."

"Eh?" Armin looked up to try and figure out what Mikasa was getting at. But then he really saw the Bladed Titan for what it was.

It had an odd—but small—limp, and it ever so slightly dragged its foot. Like it didn't know how to walk properly with one of its legs. As well as this, her mouth was sealed closed by a gag made of flesh, and her bladed ears were shifting slightly like they were alive.

The Bladed Titan stepped forward, holding an arm in front of the Rogue as if holding it back. Then, she raised her left arm up like a shield, the other on her hip, and her right leg was stiff while the other was loose and fluid.

When the opposing Titan released a bone-shaking screech and began to charge at the Bladed Titan, the latter suddenly spun the opposite direction, pulling off a flawless roundhouse kick at the spot where the neck and shoulder met. The right leg was straight as a board the whole while, separating the Titan's head from its shoulders before the Bladed Titan spun again and kicked the head like a bat with a ball. It was sent flying in their direction, and Armin was snapped out of his trance with the sense of alarm. "Look out!" cried Connie.

"Duck!" thundered Mikasa, and everyone listened without complaint as the head smashed itself apart on a nearby roof.

Despite Connie's instant action, Mikasa still grabbed him by the arm and flung him away from the head's trajectory, since ducking would've proved useless to him. The head had been going straight for him, after all.

What really piqued Armin's interest was that, while the opposing Titan tried to force itself up—its head regenerating slowly—the Bladed Titan raised her left foot and forcefully smashed it onto a certain spot, digging her heel fiercely into the flesh.

It was the weak point, where a Titan would die instantly from.

The silent Titan looked at her feet, and they slowly pieced themselves together before she decided to walk. The Rogue Titan followed close behind, and they lumbered away. Armin pushed himself up as Connie and Mikasa stared after the Titan pair.

"It... finished the job!?" the blonde finally found his voice, though it was shaky and weak from pure shock. "Then it _knew_ the weak point...!?"

"Anyway, we gotta move before they come over here..." Connie sighed, though his eyes were wide with awe. It was understandable. This Titan—or rather, these _Titans_ —were intelligent enough to murder their own kind. And both of them looked far stronger than most of the Titans the cadets have seen so far. Both covered with solid muscle, as well as they were tall. Each was close to fifteen meters in height, though the Bladed Titan was skinnier than the Rogue.

"No..." Armin suddenly said, capturing the other two's attention. "They're ignoring us...even though they'd normally be attacking by now..."

"I also sensed that it had a general idea of combat skills," added Mikasa, her eyes narrowed and bored-looking like they normally always were. However, sweat dripped down her jaw, revealing a small sense of insecurity. "What the hell are they...?"

The 8th Ranker became annoyed with their speculation. It made him incredibly confused, and he didn't like things he didn't understand. Not many people did, though, so his sour and irritated mood was understandable to say the least. "All we can say is that they're one of the Abnormals! There's a lot more we don't know about 'em than what we do!" the short cadet reasoned out poorly. "But we gotta hurry over to HQ! Everyone's fighting the—!"

"Wait! Mikasa is out of gas!" the blonde yelped, pausing Connie in his tracks.

"Hey...Are you serious!? What are we gonna do if you're not there!?" the 8th cried loudly. If there were any nearby Titans, they would have been on top of the small group due to that single shout. It was loud enough to draw anyone's attention.

"What needs to be done is obvious!" Armin yelled, kneeling down before the girl and fiddling with his canisters of gas. "I don't have much left myself, but...hurry up and trade with me!"

"...!" Mikasa stiffened as Armin removed his gas tanks. "Armin!"

"It's gotta be this way! There's no point in me having it!" snapped her friend, sounding almost angry with Mikasa. "But this time...use it wisely. To save everyone."

Then, the guilt hit Mikasa like a hundred kilos of brick and cement. She had led the way only for her own sake. To avoid collapsing from the sheer amount of fear and overwhelming sadness that sat on her shoulders. She didn't even care if the others died from her action, she just wanted escape from her grief. ' _I..._ '

"Alright! The maneuvering device still works!" Armin said, sounding rather pleased. Both Mikasa and Connie unconsciously tensed at the phrase. "And I gave you all my blades!"

Mikasa and Connie were slightly dazed, suddenly reminded of the fact that despite Eren being dead stuck and hit everyone harder, Jade had died in that accident too. She always helped everyone with fixing their gear whenever it broke, since she knew the mechanics inside and out due to her modifications of her own. She would always smile when she realized she successfully helped a person, and Mikasa swallowed down the forming lump in her throat. _Jade..._

"Just...let me keep this one..." Armin continued, snapping them out of their brief trance. "The one thing I want to avoid is getting eaten aliv—eh?" He jumped when Mikasa suddenly plucked the knife-sized sword from his fingers. He watched it carefully, and followed it with his eyes as she tossed it over the edge of the building. "Wha—!?"

"Armin..." The blonde's eyes widened slightly when he felt fingers cover his own.

"I'm not going to leave you here."

He looked down, his heart warmed by her words. "B..." he couldn't find the words. Mikasa's act of kindness had left him speechless. "But you can't fly around carrying someone...when there are Titans all over the place!"

Connie forcefully grabbed Armin by the wrist, as both he and Mikasa began to run—preparing to use their ODM gear, most likely. "There's no way we're gonna leave you behind!" the 8th Ranker snapped, dragging Armin along before looking over to the girl beside him. "Let's go! I'll carry Armin! Mikasa, you provide cover!"

' _No...At this rate...I'm going to get more friends killed..._ ' At that point, Armin looked over his shoulder, and his eyes widened in shock as he suddenly came up with an idea.

A crazy, unreasonable, reckless, and powerful idea.

"L...Listen to me!" The blonde yanked his arm from his friend's grip, forcing all three of them to stop. "I've got a plan!"

The 8th Ranker blinked. "A plan?" He didn't seem all that insulted when Armin forced him to stop running. Which made the latter all the more guilty when he decided to speak his thought.

"..." Armin mustered up his resolve, and squared his shoulders as he made eye contact with the two skilled trainees in front of him. "The two of you would carry it out...so...you two decide whether to do it or not..."

Mikasa nodded, and the corners of her lips twitched in the shape of a fleeting smile.

Feeling encouraged, Armin continued and pointed his finger in the direction behind himself. "I think it's crazy, but..."

' _Shit!_ ' Jean mentally cursed, looking down into the plaza to see Tom, an ordinary trainee, struggling to get off the ground to no avail. ' _He's out of gas!_ '

Titans slowly began to swarm the stranded cadet, and he was screaming out in horror as one of them slowly plucked his squirming body off the ground. Sobbing, snot was running down his lips like rivers.

"Tom! We're comin' to get ya, buddy!" Suddenly, two cadet whizzed past Jean, and he flinched before shouting back at them.

"Don't!" he cried. "It's too late!"

"NOOOOOOO!" screeched one of the runaway trainees, but Jean cringed painfully when a hand snatched him and his teammate out of the air, crushing them in their fingers like flies.

Jean and the others all looked away as the bloodbath ensued. Screams pierced their ears as one of the female cadets cried and cried. Jean's eyes closed, as he couldn't bear to watch his friends' deaths. But then, another image greeted his eyes.

 _"Whatever you do out there...don't betray the others for your sake. I want you to be there for them, and be a good leader."_

 _"I just don't want you—or any of the others—to die. That's all."_

Gathering up his courage, Jean raised his voice to the other cadets. "NOW!" he thundered. "Head straight for HQ while the Titans are occupied over there! Now or never..." His fingers danced along the hilts of his blades, rocketing him forth into the air. "Either way...if we run out of gas, it's over! Everyone, charge!"

Jean smiled to himself ever so slightly, before the expression changed back to the gloomy way it was before. ' _It's because of you two that I can do this. Jade, I won't let you down._ '

When a Titan snatched his leg as he shot through the air, Jean didn't panic all that much as he sliced away one of the enormous and meaty fingers to free himself. He maneuvered himself expertly, avoiding the multitude of monsters before him. He then covered his face, and angled himself so that the bottoms of his boots were facing the window. He broke in, the glass crumbling easily under his weight and force.

That was when his panic kicked in.

"Ungh..." He brushed small shards of glass off the shoulder of his jacket, flinching as he did so. For some reason, his thoughts were completely clouded with memories of Jade. It made him want to cry, but despite his perfect honesty, he did not ever want to admit that her death was taking a much larger toll on him than anyone else. The strength her memory provided was leaving him, allowing self-doubt and guilt to seep into his mind.

"How many of us made it...?" his voice was shaky, and it cracked multiple times. "Using the deaths of our comrades...how many died...on my signal?" He placed a hand over one of his eyes, trying to calm down, but the constant twitching of his fingers betrayed him.

What was even more betraying was that, when Jean looked to the side, he saw two figures hunched over beneath the shelter of a wooden desk. "Y-you two..." he was fighting to speak proper, comprehensible words, but it was a difficult battle. "You're the Supply Squad...right!?"

"..." The girl trainee trembled, swallowing in nervousness at the sharp edge in the 6th Ranker's voice.

However, the boy breathed out a simple "Yeah" to the superior ranker. But then he registered a strong force lifting him from his protective spot. "Huh—"

Jean suddenly punched the cadet viciously in the face, causing blood to spurt from the trainee's lips. It would leave an ugly bruise, for certain.

"Stop it! Jean!" Marco, the 7th Ranker, was instantly behind his friend and locked his arms in place, preventing any further harm to the cowardly Supply Squad.

"It's their fault!" cried the 6th, still struggling furiously against Marco's hold. "They left us in the lurch! More people died than necessary because of you bastards!"

The girl who had been hiding with the recently-punched cadet began to sob out her words as she shielded her friend with her own body. "The Titans invaded the supply point!" the girl wept. "There was nothing we could do!"

"Doing _something_ about it is your job!" Jean bit back, trying to break Marco's hold with all of his might.

During their argument, however, Reiner looked over to the side in brief surprise when he heard the rhythmic thud of Titan footsteps. When they got closer, the 2nd Ranker bellowed in his loudest voice " _Get down_!"

Right after those words rang out in the emptiness of the hall, the sudden noise of shattering stone and glass greeted the group's ears. The ugly, ill-proportioned face of a Titan entered their field of vision, striking unnatural fear into their hearts. Luckily for Jean, Marco released him in the shock of the Titan's abrupt appearance.

' _Crap..._ ' the 6th thought to himself, unable to move due to the fear that rooted him firmly in place. ' _There are too many people gathered in here..._ '

Outside of his head, pandemonium erupted. Cadets ran every which way except the Titans' direction. They argued loudly over trivial matters, like Mikasa's loss of gas. Jean was the only one who didn't move at all, staring blankly at the hideous features that lay in front of him.

' _This is normal...This is reality..._ ' Jean sheathed his blades, detaching them from the pistol-like hilts and placing the latter into their respective resting places. ' _Was I chasing a dream? A vision? I should've known better. This is reality...it's simple, really, when you think about it..._ '

' _There's just no way to beat these gigantic things..._ '

But, as if on cue, a fist with skin ripped from its knuckles appeared, and it punched aside the two Titans that were sitting by them. They were like paper against the force. Then a face came into view.

Its face wasn't nearly as ugly as most of the other Titans around. With a strangely set jaw, sunken-in green eyes, and sharply angled cheekbones, it looked abnormal but not fear-inducing. At least, not until it released a bone-chilling scream of pure rage.

Behind it stood a female Titan with bladed ears and a gagged mouth. But it seemed to emit a noise regardless that made the cadets' ears ring. The blades of its ears shifted like they were alive, and when they moved faster, the noise grew louder. But it limped around, until it fought like nobody had ever seen before.

As the screaming Titan continued to—well, scream—the Bladed Titan suddenly charged a group and stabbed them violently with the silver daggers of her ears. Blood spewed everywhere, spilling and steaming instantly. Jean could only watch with a hanging jaw. "What the hell...is that...?"

However, the cadets contained within the building didn't have time to dwell on the appearance of the strange Titans as another unharmed pane of glass was shattered into pieces. Three figures appeared as the culprits, and everyone started when they realized who came.

"Mikasa...!?" Jean cried loudly, seeing the beautiful girl land on her hands and knees after breaking through the window. Her chest heaved up and down rapidly as she fought to catch her breath. Even she would feel spent after using her ODM gear.

"Damn, that was close...I'm empty..." Connie tapped the gas canister with his hand, testing the leftover fuel. Armin was kneeling beside his friend. "We did it...Just made it..."

"Y-You're...alive...!" Jean was purely happy to see the 1st Ranker alive and well. But she looked dazed, like something astonishing had happened before her eyes. And Jean had a good idea of what it was, as he looked at the hole in the wall to see the Bladed Titan and the Rogue Titan tearing through the other Titans like wet paper.

"We did it, Armin!" Connie slapped his friend's back joyfully, over and over.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Armin whined at every hit on his back.

"Your strategy worked!" continued the 8th Ranker, before standing up and pointing at the two strange Titans. "Guys! Those Titans are fellow Titan-killing anomalies! And on top of that, they have no interest in us!"

Connie began shouting out the plan to the cadets, how he and Mikasa killed the nearby Titans to keep the berserker ones on the path to the headquarters of Trost. Meanwhile, everyone watched the Titans outside, raging and slaughtering anything that went in their path. They all began arguing about using Titans for their survival, but Jean could only watch.

His eyes narrowed.

' _The quiet one...she looks familiar._ '


	6. Mark of the Blue Jay

• **Third Person's POV •**

Jean walked into the back room, searching for any kind of weapon. Puffing out his cheeks, he blew hard into the air to remove dust from the peeling labels stamped on the boxes. Then found what Armin had specifically requested.

Shotguns.

Pulling out the multitude of wooden crates, he poured some of them onto the arms of the cadets that followed him. Then, with three thin, long packages on his own forearms, he kicked open the door and walked into the room with the others listening to Armin, discussing strategy for defeating the Titans that swarmed the supply area.

Opening the boxes, Jean unlocked the shotguns and frowned at Armin in confusion as he handed one to Marco and one to a faceless cadet. "Will buckshot really even do anything...?" he asked, checking the ammunition in the gun he kept for himself. "I mean, using guns...against Titans?"

Sweating nervously, Armin looked back down at the diagram that was smoothed out across the flooring. "I think it's a lot better than having nothing..." the blonde admitted. "And even with this degree of firepower, it isn't impossible to incapacitate the seven 3- and 4-meter class Titans that are occupying the supply room, and all at the same time."

Armin then went into detail, carefully describing each detail of the plan he had devised. But he began scaring Jean, when he talked about the actual killing of the Titans. "Seven people hiding near the ceiling will swoop down in time with the firing and slash the Titans' vital spots. In other words...everything rides on this one attack. All of our lives are at stake."

The blonde looked around, and his eyes specifically called out the seven people he wanted. Mikasa, Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, Jean, Connie, and Sasha. "The point is for seven people to kill the Titans in one stroke and all at once. The seven people with the most athletic ability probably have the highest chance of striking home, so they'll do the job."

Jean nodded. It made sense to choose seven of the top Rankers, but why didn't Armin select Marco? He was a higher rank than both Connie and Sasha. Then it hit him; Marco had the best judgement, which would be why he should be with other people taking out the eyes of the Titans. He would know the exact time to fire the shotguns. ' _Armin's smarter than I gave him credit for._ '

"But, um..." Armin still looked quite hesitant at carrying out the plan, both pale in the face and sweating profusely. "I'm sorry. They'll have to carry the burden of everyone's lives on their shoulders."

"No problem," replied Reiner, smirking a little. "The risk's the same, no matter who does it. If one fails, everyone does..." Jean blinked at the unexpected wisdom coming from the 2nd Ranker. It was strange, having it come from Reiner's mouth instead of Armin's or Marco's.

"But...is my plan really our best option...?" The Last Ranker still seemed nervous, doubt rolling off him in waves.

Marco patted the blonde's shoulder. "We've gotta go with it. There isn't time to come up with anything else." The 7th Ranker smiled a hint. "Besides, I think we're all tapped out of ideas. So, we just need to throw ourselves into this one, heart and soul!"

Jean tuned them all out after, releasing the ODM gear from his hips as he prepared to go fulfill his part of the plan; kill the beasts that roamed in the supply hall.

He somehow detached the hilts from the complicated mechanism that encircled the ODM gear, then felt his heart twist with emotion. Jade had taught him how to do that, right before they took the simulated test as a truce. She knew her gear inside and out. Well, she used to.

And suddenly, Jean felt an incredible urge to slaughter every Titan down in the hall below his feet, and it flowed through every fiber of his being.

* * *

 _"Hey, Kirstein?"_

 _I looked over to see Covert the Cripple with a wrench in her left hand, oil staining her cheeks in finger-shaped smudges. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, and my lips curled in disgust at the stench that wafted off of her. She smelled of grease and iron and a hint of copper._

 _"You stink," I grumbled at her, and she brushed the mild insult away with a wave of her free hand._

 _"I want to show you something," the brunette said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. Her metal leg looked shiny as if it had been recently polished with extreme care. There was a rag poking out from Jade's pocket, so she was likely the one who made her leg brighter than a diamond._

 _I frowned further, creating wrinkles in my forehead. "What if I don't come with you, Covert?"_

 _She laughed a little, not sounding angry in the slightest. I'd never seen her ever lose her cool, always calm and cheerful instead. Sure, she'd been annoyed before on many occasions, but never truly malevolent. "It's fine, Kirstein," she smiled. "It doesn't help me benefit in any way, only you. I swear it on..." Her voice faltered, making her swallow before she continued. "My brother's soul."_

 _I was somewhat surprised; she didn't have to go to such a length to convince me to go with her. Everyone knew that she was traumatized—she'd lost so many people in a single instant. Though, I didn't ever recall her brother being a victim of the Shiganshina Incident._

" _Alright. Let's go, then."_

 _Rolling my shoulders to ease the tight muscles there, I followed her into a room that smelled the same way she did; mechanics personified._

 _It was the shed that the Instructor allowed Jade to work in for her little shenanigans. Every night, the girls in her dorm complained of the smell she constantly exuded and left in the cabin they all shared when she worked. So he gave her a storage shed, and let her work there to her heart's content._

 _She pulled out a spare ODM device, and she showed it to me. "What am I supposed to do with this?" I asked her, crossing my arms._

 _She smiled wide, her teeth gleaming. Despite her dirt-streaked face, her teeth were perfectly clean. For some reason, my heart stuttered at the sight._

 _"I wanted to show you a cool trick that might come in handy sometime, even though you're probably gonna be in the MP Brigade," she said, her fingers moving to the hilts on the spare gear. "Because the scabbards are really heavy, you know? And they make a lot of noise at times. So, if you don't need to move in a 3D space, you could detach the swords and just use them like that."_

 _As if to display her point, she used the spare gear and undid the cord that was connected to the hilt. It smoothly removed itself when she unscrewed the bolt that kept it in place, and then she did a few more little twists and turns before finally removing the sword from the total of the gear._

 _"And there you go," Jade said, the hilt finally removing itself into her open palm. She swung it around with her left hand a few times to prove her point, holding it backhanded as always. She even masterfully spun it around in circles, miraculously not knocking a single item over. "You might want to use this trick sometime. It would work, trust me."_

 _"When would I ever use that?" I raised an eyebrow, contradicting her. She still kept her cool._

 _Giving me one of the detached blades, her face fell, becoming deadly serious within mere seconds. It caught me off guard. "Titans are unpredictable. Sure, they go for humans. But the environment, the actions you take, the types of Titans you face, and the supply you have...it varies every time. And I don't want you to be caught off guard and lose your life for it. So, please learn what I showed you."_

 _I felt touched by her concern but made a stony face because of it, unable to process the fact that I was suddenly beginning to not be disgusted in this girl's presence. Her expression fell at mine, and she looked down at her feet. "If you don't think it's worth knowing, you don't have to learn."_

 _My heart, once warmed by her care and thoughtfulness, was pricked with guilt. I tried to find some way to tell her that wasn't what I was thinking at all—guilt leaving my mind blank and unable to find the correct words to say—but then my eyes fell upon something behind her. On her cluttered desk was a chaotic mess of ink-stained papers, jars spilling over the brim with the ink itself, and a multitude of varying fountain pens lying scattered everywhere. It looked like an artist's heaven._

 _There, pictures of her closest friends' faces were drawn there. There was a pissed-off Connie, with each of the mini hairs on his head scribbled perfectly. The stoic Mikasa, with her thick-lashed eyes staring back at him. Naïve Eren, with him laughing so hard he was crying. The blonde Armin with a shy smile on his perfectly-proportioned lips. And bored Annie, with the same glimmer in her eyes that was only there when she fought._

 _It was utterly real._

 _What really caught my attention was the picture of me there. Little phrases and words had embroidered the edges, like 'horse-face' and 'selfish jerk'. But one of them was 'honest and trustworthy'. She really had done an amazing job, making it look exactly like me. It was like I was staring into a mirror, it was so real. And with only ink and a fountain pen, no less!_

 _"Jade..." I said, catching her off-guard. It was the first time I ever called her by her first name since we met, after all. Her face instantly warmed a tad. "Why do you hide your talent?"_

 _Her breath hitched a hint as if she knew what I was talking about. "W-What do you mean?" She stammered, looking behind herself at the tiny bed in the corner. "My work w-with mechanics is well-known. I practically fl-flaunt it around with m-my leg..."_

 _"I'm not talking about your work with metal," I spoke with a firmness I didn't know I had. "Those drawings...they're almost lifelike."_

 _"Oh…I just scribble whoever I'm thinking of on those papers, Kirstein," Jade answered, looking at the art with dull and disinterested eyes. "My brother taught me how to draw before he left and entered the Survey Corps. So I practice when I can so that I don't forget it. I even added a few twists of my own, like sharpening the jaw-line with a thick amount of ink instead of only shading intensely underneath it." She pointed at the specific parts of her drawings, demonstrating what she meant._

 _I bit my lip, not knowing how to continue the conversation. Her liking for drawing now made sense to me, but the cripple herself still remained an enigma. Something I just couldn't comprehend. The way she could set my rib cage aflutter, and my heart aflame...It didn't feel real to me._

 _"Jade," I said, capturing her interest once more. "Show me how to remove the swords again."_

 _Her eyes widened, and she froze up on the spot. Her fingers paused and stopped putting the spare gear together. "Wh...what?"_

 _Snarling and blushing at the same time, I looked away as I repeated "What are you, deaf? Show me again, you stupid cripple."_

 _Her entire face lit up like the sun was suddenly ensnared in her eyes and smile. It was a blinding sight. "O-okay!" She said determinedly, a hand on her geared leg. "I won't let you down!"_

 _I couldn't help but smirk in return at her expression. It was nice to see her happy._

* * *

With his face grim, Jean practically growled at the memory. Jade didn't deserve to die so cruelly—she deserved to take down anything that stood in her way. She was too kind and sweet and innocent to be killed so brutally in such a short amount of time.

"The lift is ready!" one of the other cadets shouted, earning determined yet nervous eyes shifted towards him. "All the guns are loaded, too!"

When all of the other trainees received a loaded shotgun, Jean helped the other six who were killing the Titans remove their swords from the entirety of the mechanism. "Hey, Jean?"

He looked up at Reiner, confused by him. They had moved into a more private room, as Reiner wanted to focus without the excess noise from the panicking trainees outside. "Wh-what is it, Reiner?"

The 2nd Ranker held up his gear, all dismantled perfectly and efficiently. "How do you know how to remove the swords?"

The 6th looked down and swallowed in nervousness. "That's..."

"Didn't only Jade know how?" the man pressed, leaning in closely to Jean's face. His breath was warm. "Why would you know? Were you just trying to find more ways to find points in your gear?"

Jean was scared. Reiner, always so brotherly and honest, was being cold and brutal. It was a terrifying change of personality, and Jean wondered if Jade's death was taking a toll on the 2nd Ranker as well. "N-no, Reiner. Jade, she—"

The blonde turned his head, seeming to be disgusted with Jean. The corners of his lips were turned down sourly as if he had eaten something bitter. "What did she do? I remember her saying that she would never teach you anything at the beginning of the year."

' _She said that?_ ' Jean blinked in mild surprise. Aside from their constant bickering, Jean had never seen the girl truly angry with him before. There had been...one moment of complete, almost uncanny rage, but even then, it wasn't even aimed at him. "Well, she taught me this before the final simulation. She even showed me the inside of her shed."

Reiner's eyes snapped to meet Jean's, and the 6th swallowed nervously as sweat rolled down his face. The 2nd Ranker was quite intimidating, especially since he towered over Jean in height. But then, Reiner sighed deeply.

"I just...miss her," he said, sounding completely hollowed out inside. "Eren's death doesn't help much with this, either. I miss them both...a lot, actually."

Jean gasped at the transformation, reminded faintly of the fact that the blonde originally hated Jade. But now, he was torn up over her death. It was such a change. "Reiner..."

Reiner raked a hand through his short blonde hair, looking away from Jean and instead to the other five rankers preparing their own blades as Jean had perfectly instructed them to before. "One time during training, my gear malfunctioned," he began to tell a story, startling Jean. "Apparently, the fan in the ODM gear was broken or something. I fell to the ground as a result and sprained my ankle pretty badly. I kept calling for help, but no one was around. But then, Jade landed next to me out of the blue."

"..." Jean was gaping. "What…did she do?"

"Her brace is made mostly of metal, but there are leather straps there as well to help it be more comfortable and fit better to her leg. They also hold every piece—gears, levers, belts and all—together," Reiner looked very guilty as he described the mechanics of her hand-powered machine. "She took off the leather straps from it, wrapped up my ankle, and even gave me the fan in her gear so I could get out of there. You know what she said when I asked her why she was sacrificing herself in a simulation?"

"What...the...?"

"She told me 'We're supposed to treat this like a real-life scenario. That means you save the better people for higher chances of success. A cripple compared to an expert doesn't even have to be remotely considered.'" The 2nd Ranker then looked down at his left ankle reminiscently. "She told me to leave, but that was when I truly saw how crippled she was. She couldn't move at all, using a tree to just barely stand up. Her leg was completely loose, Jean. It's why I was so scared before our squads all split up. I had a feeling she would either see someone injured and kill herself for that person. Or her leg would get damaged and she'd end up stranded."

Jean looked at his feet, touched slightly by Reiner's story. "Reiner..."

"We spent a lot of time together after that...incident..." Reiner continued, apparently not finished. "I'd help her with her gear, but I'd convinced myself that it was to pay her back for risking her own scores for mine. But, I realized afterward that...it was because of her alone."

Jean flinched at that for some odd reason, his body reacting all on its own. It felt weird to hear another person talk about Jade like that, and it made the 6th Ranker swat his hand in one direction as if slapping away the notion entirely.

"Regardless, we should hurry and do this to everyone else's gear..." Jean muttered, barely loud enough for Reiner to hear him.

The 2nd Ranker nodded firmly, before picking up his discarded and detached blades off the ground, making a scraping sound of rock against metal. "Yeah...show me how you did it, again. It'll go faster if both of us work to help." Jean nodded in reply and got to work.

"The lift is ready!" shouted a nameless cadet from the side, clutching a loaded gun to his chest. His lips moved, but Jean registered no more noise as he and the other six Rankers wandered down through the stairs to gain entry to the pillars above the Titans.

The simple, rhythmic thuds of their boots were the only sounds made, slowly raising the tension in the area, little by little. Jean wanted to say something, to relax everyone a hint. But, he couldn't speak, his lips numb with fear.

Finally, Connie broke the silence with a concern. "Will we even be able to kill the Titans without our vertical maneuvering gear?"

Reiner, who was stone-faced up until then, raised his chin up and smirked arrogantly. "Sure we can do it!" he boomed, making everyone in the room jump mildly in shock—save for Mikasa and Annie—before being a tad more serious. "The enemy's only in the three to four-meter class. That makes their weak spot an easy target."

Jean tutted his tongue quietly, silently agreeing with his friend. "Yeah...Doesn't make a difference how big they are, it's always back of the neck, below the head."

"Length; one meter. Width; ten centimeters!" recited Sasha, a face of concentration pulling her lips down with displeasure.

Then, Reiner gave a real naughty and cocky expression that made Jean sweat nervously just by looking at it. He raised his sword up and made a jabbing motion as he said "Or you can stick this up their assholes! That's their only other vital spot!"

"I didn't know that! So there are two ways!?" Connie cried obliviously, making Jean want to slap him for it.

"This is the first I've heard of it..." grumbled Sasha.

Finally having enough of it, Jean spat "Reiner...those could very well be your last words." But, mentally, Jean was grateful for the 2nd Ranker's quick thinking. He had lifted the stress from the others' shoulders.

' _Thanks…_ '

Above the Titans, Jean trembled crazily with fear as they all waited silently. The loud whirring of gears could be heard as the lift—stocked full of cadets wielding guns—slowly lowered itself to the lumbering Titans that were oblivious and unaware.

However, a blonde Titan's nose began to twitch at the sudden scent of humans. It whirled its head suddenly, causing many of the trainees to panic and stiffen. "Calm down..." Marco ordered, fighting to keep his cool. "Let them get closer!"

Listening, Jean's fingers itched on the triggers, only for him to remember that it would do nothing. There was no gas supply, nor any heavy weight pulling on his hips and thighs. Due to the intense training, the 6th Ranker felt lighter than a feather. Yet, the weight in his hands remained the same.

 _Thud...thud...thud...thud...thud..._

The 3-meter class beasts thumped their way to the lift, fat and sweaty palms reaching for the small forms that trembled violently inside. Finally, Marco opened his eyes.

"FIRE!"

A rain of bullets fired down upon the unsuspecting Titans' eyes, rendering them blind. Jean's muscles tensed and launched him into the air after a running start. Terror made his mind go blank, but his muscles had been forced to remember the swinging motion, the targeted area, and the shifting of weight throughout his body. He felt his blades connect with flesh and heard the gurgle of blood nearby. When he came to his senses, he saw the steam flowing from the Titan's flesh and it collapsing to its knees.

He landed harshly on the ground but didn't let himself fall as his eyes frantically shot up and began wildly searching for the others. ' _Who made it...and who didn't?_ '

He saw Mikasa, standing beside her corpse. Annie, who looked bored as always. Reiner and Bertolt were already walking towards each other.

But Connie and Sasha...had failed.

His eyes flew open wide as the Titans turned to their attackers, slowly moving to kill. "Sasha and Connie!" thundered Marco with a face of pure fear. "Hurry! They need backup!"

Sasha was sobbing apologies to the Titan, before wailing and running the other way as it jumped to eat her. However, Mikasa reached her just in time with a swift flash of her blades, perfectly cutting through the neck of the monster. Annie had done the same, her eyes glinting dauntingly.

But, as people like Sasha began to blubber their thanks, something swelled elatedly in Jean's chest, and he cried "They've all been put down!" with utter glee. "Now we can focus on stocking up!"

"Yeah!" all the cadets pumped their fists into the air, making the 6th Ranker smile proudly. ' _See? I didn't let anyone die._ '

* * *

When everyone had restocked their blades and gas, most of the cadets went flying as far away as possible from the headquarters of Trost District. They were shouting proudly and happily and joyfully and freely as they zipped away from sight. Jean had waited for the other top ten Rankers that were left, as well as Armin. Sasha, Marco, and Connie had already hightailed it out of there, so only Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, and Mikasa were left with Jean.

Mikasa was the first to finally poke her head out of the window, when a roar blared outside, echoing wildly. Her attention was caught, and she suddenly flew out to the top of the building, promptly landing steadily on the roof. "Mikasa!" Armin shrieked, but she didn't pay him any mind.

Everyone immediately followed her, and Armin instantly began to speak, not looking at what Mikasa was doing. "Mikasa...if we don't get out of here soon—"

"Those Titans..." she interrupted him, pointing in the direction ahead of them. Jean gulped at the sight.

The Rogue Titan was pressed up against the buildings, one of its arms missing and the flesh over one side of its rib cage had been completely torn off, exposing scarlet-stained bones. Three 4-meter Titans swarmed its legs, while others ate at its shoulders and chest. Very little steam came off the beast.

The Bladed Titan, however, was still fighting against the monsters that pinned her down. Regardless, she wasn't in very good shape either. Blood spilled down the side of her face, one of her bladed ears missing and torn off. She had no arms entirely, yet she kept viciously kicking with her one leg left. Heavy chunks of flesh were missing from her body as a whole. Her spine was exposed, the bones clicking together unevenly. She still remained silent as ever, with her lack of a mouth.

"Ulp!" Armin swallowed nervously at the sight. "Cannibalism...?"

' _Their bodies aren't regenerating..._ ' Jean realized with a start, noticing the lack of steam from their struggling bodies.

"I thought...if we could somehow solve the mystery of those Titans...it could become an opportunity...to help us find a way out of this hopeless situation, but..." Mikasa looked conflicted like she wanted to help the monsters. It bewildered Jean, to say the least.

Those monsters and their kind murdered Jade and Eren. They didn't deserve mercy, no matter how useful they could've been.

"I agree!" boomed Reiner, catching Jean off-guard. "If they get eaten, the whole thing will be over without us understanding a damn thing! Let's eliminate the ones that are sticking to those Titans...For now, to try and keep them alive longer!"

"Reiner, are you insane!?" Jean finally cried, unable to comprehend what was going through their heads. "We're finally able to escape this death-trap!"

"But what about the possibility that those Titans could become allies...?" pointed out Annie, looking dull in the eyes. She seemed even more lifeless than usual, for some odd reason. "Don't you think they could be weapons more powerful than any cannon?"

"...!?" Jean was speechless at the suggestion. "...Allies, you say...!? Is that what you're seriously suggesting!?"

"Ah!" Everyone's heads whirled toward Armin, their argument briefly interrupted. His eyes were pinned on a skinny Titan not too far away, with a flat face and blonde hair. "Isn't that...the Abnormal that ate Thomas!?"

As if realizing it too, the two Berserker Titans suddenly began to thrash around in fury. The Rogue managed to break itself free entirely, losing an arm in the process as it clamped its huge jaws over the vital point of the Abnormal. It lifted the beast over its head, ribs snapping visibly, before throwing it into another Titan. The other one stood, and finally, the Bladed one freed herself from her captors.

Using the one blade left, she pierced the standing Titan in the weak point, causing it to fall instantly. But she became surrounded as the Rogue Titan collapsed out of exhaustion.

She narrowed her sunken-in eyes before blades suddenly shot from the sides of her calves. They went over her ankles and farther past that until they resembled daggers. She then spun around in lightning speed, decapitating every single Titan within range.

When they were all dead, she was breathing heavily before falling on her side. She was dead from overexertion.

"What was that about helping again?" Jean muttered, knowing everyone heard him. "Not surprisingly...looks like they've burned themselves out..."

Everyone watched, taking in the sight hungrily for information. What made those Titans like this? What were they doing? Why were they together? What made them tick?

Why did they look like someone else they had known before?

"So, seen enough...?" asked Jean, tired of the spectacle. "Let's hightail it. There's no way those monsters are on our side!" He frowned, remembering an oil-smudged face with a sun-like grin. "Titans are Titans."

But the others kept watching, and Annie gasped in shock as something happened. "Hey..." Jean moved to force them out of their reverie, but then he looked back down at the Titans.

His eyes widened in shock.

While steam flowed steadily from the corpses of the Titans, at their vital points, two bodies emerged. Both bodies were unconscious, but their faces were unmistakable.

Eren.

Jade.

Mikasa let out a small noise that sounded like a gasp of surprise, relief, sadness, joy, and fear mixed into one thing. Tears gathered in her lashes as she launched herself off the roof and began to sprint towards her adoptive brother. She stumbled a few times, but she threw herself into the curtain of steam and wrapped her arms tightly around Eren's torso. But she froze when she noticed a certain detail about him.

He wasn't hugging her back.

Scared, Mikasa slowly moved to press her ear to his chest.

 _Thump-thump. Thump-thump._

Thick tears began to fill her lids, but she somehow held them in as she carefully lifted Eren over her shoulder. Her feet made a steady rhythm on the floor, and she focused on that as she set her anchors into the stone walls of the headquarters, and slowly pulled herself upwards. She held Eren like one would a child; delicately.

However, Annie had jumped right off the building as soon as the steam had revealed Jade's form. The blonde scurried to her best friend and then paused to take in her looks.

Her ears now had circular discs over them. Underneath, blades fanning out like wings poked out. But, at the moment, Annie didn't care. She simply smiled, covered her mouth with her hands, and began to sob quietly in relief. She didn't want the others to see her guard drop like this, so she just cried and cried within the shield of steam that came from a Titan's body. Jade was alive. Jade was _alive_.

She cupped her hands over her mouth, then studied each contour of Jade's face. The clear brows, the sharp jaw, and her almost perfect lips. Her smooth and pale skin, free of the burn marks that were once there.

She then hefted the girl into her arms bridal style, checking the cripple's leg to be sure that nothing was missing before shooting herself back into the air and atop the roof of the Trost headquarters. Only a few missing plates from the Combat Mode, but nothing vital.

Mikasa, who had arrived at the same time as Annie, collapsed to her knees, held Eren close to her body, then broke down. She began to wail like a little child, her chest heaving with uneven breaths and sharp sobs. Her tears flowed freely from her face, falling at an alarming rate and soon creating a visible mark on Eren's shirt. He looked no different than he did when she last saw him.

Annie merely went to her knees on the stone ground, and pressed Jade's forehead to hers, smiling gently in relief. She had wiped away any trace of her crying, so she only looked purely serene at the sight of Jade. But she was smiling. She was smiling a truly happy smile, something that Jade would have died to see.

And she nearly did.

Jean, however, had a similar reaction to Mikasa when he fell to his knees in complete shock. He reached out tentatively, as if scared she would shatter at his touch—and quite honestly scared that Annie would slap his hand away viciously—and ran his fingers through her long, long hair. The hairband holding it together had long since snapped, letting it tumble to knee-length and pool on the ground. It looked longer than normal, but Jean didn't care. He paid no attention to the bladed ears that she now had, not even caring in the slightest. She was back, and that was all that mattered.

He placed a knuckle on her cheek, noticing that her burn had completely healed. The skin was no longer ugly and puckered. There was no blood anywhere; she looked perfectly healthy, save for her previous imperfections.

He took up her hand next—the branded one—and looked at it. The shiny mark of the blue jay was still there on her palm. Her skin—in exception to the scars, of course—felt incredibly soft and it was warm. Like she had washed it clean in lukewarm water, then dried it off with a perfectly clean towel.

Her slender fingers became entangled in his, and he smiled. Tears fell from his eyes, but Jean didn't care as he pressed the blue jay to his cheek. He didn't want to let go, to fear losing her again like she was only a dream as soon as his fingers left hers.

He kept holding her hand carefully with his own, happy for this one miracle that seemed to have no explanation.

Annie was much the same way, holding her forehead to Jade's. She held the cripple close, with one arm around Jade's waist and the other weaving into her hair to hold Jade's head to hers. But her eyes never left the hand that Jean took and pressed to his cheek.

Her eyes never left the mark of the blue jay, and Annie gave a small huff of amusement.

' _I think I'll finally take you up on that offer...Bluejay._ '

* * *

 **I hope you guys liked it. This is probably one of my favorite chapters so far.**

 **Please let me know how badly I'm doing with a review lol**

 **Sincerely,**

 **greentea**


	7. Monstrous

_"And it's time for me to spread my wings."_

 _I clawed at my face with my nails as pain overtook my whole body._

 _That's what I thought. That's what I wanted. I wanted to be as tall as a Titan so they could see how much us humans had truly suffered. I doubted a bluejay could do much, but that's what I was._

 _I never thought I actually would fly, as my sight suddenly skyrocketed. Things became a blur to me. 'Kill...kill...kill...kill...'_

 _What was running through my mind? I wanted to make sense of it, but I couldn't. All I could think of was killing. Murder. Death. Violence. Destruction. Eradication. End. Blood. Kill._

 _I reached out with my hands, but they seemed grotesquely huge. My fingers were still long, but now they looked as if they were made of smooth silver. I wanted to shriek in surprise, but my mouth didn't move. Rather, it was non-existent._

 _The very realization of my lack of a mouth made me want to scream more, ironically._

 _But then, I smelled something. A familiar scent that stung my nostrils and made them flare at the very hint of it._

 _Titan flesh._

 _I turned my head and immediately saw a monster. But it was my height. I didn't care about it as I suddenly reached out and my fist connected with its jaw, sending it flying off. Blood flew into the air._

 _'Kill...kill...kill...'_

 _I whirled on my heel when I noticed it was smooth, without the subtle clicking of gears. I looked down, seeing small clumps of greasy, brown hair edge my vision. I didn't care, as I noticed something far more...alarming._

 _My leg was perfect._

 _Fully healed. Flawlessly shaped. Perfectly muscled. Scarless skin. Granted, dark grey lines streaked down the skin, but that hardly mattered at the moment. 'I'm moving...on my own...'_

 _Feeling a sudden rush of energy flow to my core, I turned around and began to sprint. No stumbles...no limping...no dials...It was perfect in every flex of sinew, every bend of every joint. I could move my leg again. Memories of flying past Wall Maria as a child flashed across my mind, and I wanted to smile, despite my missing mouth. 'Kill.'_

 _I skidded to a stop using my heels when I heard a vicious thumping that resembled my own footsteps behind me. I looked to see a Titan of a few meters taller than I. It bore mysteriously teal eyes, and a crazily-set jaw, like God had been drunk when he made the face of this monster._

 _Chiseled muscle lined its sides and chest and legs...and pretty much everywhere else._

 _For some reason, I trusted this beast. I didn't know why, but I did. It felt right._

 _We both turned when we saw a tiny 3-meter Titan hobble towards is with an eerie grin plastered on its face unnaturally. Moving like lightning compared to the strange one I'd met a few moments ago, I reached out, grabbed its neck, and—_

 _'Die. Die. Kill. Kill.'_

* * *

"Die...Kill..."

Opening my eyes slowly, the image of blinding light greeted me first. ' _What sort of dream was that...?_ ' It had felt so real, so unique, so true.

And yet...my leg was still a gleaming heap of metal parts. I sighed.

"Jade!"

Startled, I jumped a little in my spot to see Armin and Eren on both sides of me. I blinked and looked right up at Armin. "Min...? Ren...? What's...happening?" Why was my voice so sore? Why was my head so heavy?

"Jade!" I looked farther up ahead and saw Mikasa wielding both of her swords defensively in front of us. I gaped, unable to think of anything worth saying.

"Look, can you move?" Eren asked me. He looked shaky, pale, and honestly more likely than me to be unable to move. Sweat cloaked his forehead, and he looked terrified—not to mention uncomfortable.

I moved to prove my unspoken point of being perfectly fine, but my arms gave out on me, causing me to slip and fall back onto the ground. "Agh...Barely...I'm the goddamn cripple, remember?" Why did I feel so grumpy?

"Tell us everything that happened!" Armin suddenly said to us both. I slipped again out of surprise at the urgency in his tone. "I'm sure they'll understand!" It took me a while to notice, but there were tears in his eyes.

"Armin...?" Eren squinted his eyes at Armin, like that would make sense of the strange situation.

"Hear that!?" I refocused my eyes to realize there were other people in front of us. They were a safe distance away, but still close enough to hear our conversation. "He said 'I'll kill you all'! And she told him to 'kill'!"

"Yeah, no doubt about it," a soldier agreed with his comrade, making me cock my head to the side. "They want to devour us all. _She_ even looks like a Titan."

' _W-what's going on...Why are their swords pointed at us? Those are for killing Titans, not humans! Why are they...looking at me like I'm some kind of monster...?_ ' I reached up nervously to cover my ears, to block out the sound of my heart, but instead, a sharp feeling of pain rushed through my fingertips. I hissed and looked that them right away.

They were bleeding profusely.

"Don't touch your ears, Jade," Armin whispered quietly, his eyes fixed on the side of my head. "Your ears...aren't the same way they used to be..."

"Wh-what do you mean...?" My voice quivered anxiously. ' _What happened?_ '

"We'll talk about them later, okay?" Armin tried calming me down, but he himself looked ready to have a heart attack.

' _Why am I...such a monster?_ '

* * *

 **-Third Person's POV-**

"So that's how we refilled our gas and got out of Trost District," Connie finished off. Ymir and Krista stood in front of him, drinking in every word he spoke. They were tense with surprise and fright at their terrifying journey to escape the walls of Trost.

The blonde on Connie's right nodded her head slowly. "I see," she murmured, looking guilty. "I'm really sorry. We requested supply support for you guys multiple times, but..."

"We finally got our hands on some too," added Ymir, looking disappointed.

Then, Krista's eyes widened briefly before she looked around. "S-so then the people that aren't here are all..."

Connie blinked before getting her message. Sweaty, he looked away from her and instead preferred the stone ground beneath them. "Yeah."

They both paused.

"Even Mikasa?" asked Ymir, wide-eyed in shock as she took notice of the fact that the 1st Ranker was currently absent.

"N-no, I thought she came back later with Jean and the others," Connie corrected, looking confused. He looked around before realizing Ymir was right; Mikasa was nowhere to be seen.

Ymir turned to face Jean, who sat slumped at a table not too far away. With him sat a depressed Annie, a stone-faced Reiner, and a haunted Bertolt. "Jean!" the 11th Ranker called. "Don't tell me Mikasa is injured."

Jean didn't reply, instead continuing his seemingly careful study of the ground below his feet. His eyes looked scared and daunted.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Connie asked, his brows furrowed together. He looked concerned for his friend's well-being.

Jean finally looked in the trio's direction, before taking a gulp of water from the waterskin clutched in his hand and wiping his mouth. "We were ordered to keep that confidential," he said after a small while, remembering his utter relief and joy at Jade's sudden appearance. But now that the ecstasy had left him, all he felt was pain, pain, pain. What had happened to her ears? Why was she found in the carcass of a Titan? Why was she still alive? Those questions had come flooding in after she had been removed from his sight. "I can't say."

"Confidential?" blinked Connie.

"Seriously?" grumbled Ymir.

"Although," Jean continued, mildly surprising his small audience. "it's not something they can keep under wraps for long. It's only a matter of time before everyone finds out." His dark gaze lifted up to blankly stare into nowhere in particular. "That is, assuming people live to hear of it."

His last sentence left them deathly silent.

* * *

 **-Jade Covert's POV-**

"Recruits Jaeger and Covert, as well as Recruits Ackerman and Arlert!" a man bellowed in front of us, his face masked in a large brown beard. His tone and terrified eyes left me quaking in my spot. "Your present actions are treason! What do you have to say in your defense!?"

"..." I knew that even if I tried to say anything, my voice would be too shaky to understand a single word. Eren, who held my hand in fear, was sweating buckets as he stared up at the man before us.

"Any attempts to mislead or escape will be met with a bombardment of high-explosive shells!" he continued, pointing up at a certain direction. "This is no bluff! Let me be frank!" He moved closer and glared at Eren and me from far away. "What are you two? Humans, or Titans?"

I stiffened. "What sort...of a question...is that...?" I whispered to myself, completely thunderstruck at the man's words. ' _Why are they glaring at us? Is it because of my ears? Do they see me as a Titan-like girl who kills just the same as Titans themselves!? But...what about Eren? He isn't marked with such a terrible—or obvious—trait._ '

"We do not understand the question!" Eren finally shouted to the Captain—I'm just assuming what position the man had—and his fingers tightened around mine as we waited nervously.

"Feigning ignorance?" the man snapped. "Damn monsters, I dare you to try that again! We'll blast you to pieces in an instant! We won't even give you time to show your true colors!"

"True...colors...?" I blinked, my voice breathy. "What—"

"There are plenty of witnesses!" the Captain continued, not giving us any room to argue with him. "We all saw the moment when you both emerged from within Titan carcasses! Manki—"

I drowned him out and began to lose myself in my own thoughts and conjecture. We emerged...from Titan carcasses? Like, we survived while being eaten or something?

Or was my dream reality?

As the Captain and other soldiers kept talking and shouting at me and Eren, I bent over slowly. I felt tears slip from behind my lashes and fall onto my cheeks. My hands were over my ears, just over the disc-like thing so that I wouldn't be cut. My legs—both the crippled and the working—were splayed in front of me like that of a broken doll. I felt Armin's hand run along my back, tracing soothing circles with his thumb as he tried to calm me down. It didn't work, as I kept silently sobbing.

Even as Mikasa walked forward, threatening the soldiers with her swords, I felt my heart squeeze tightly. ' _This is all just a nightmare..._ ' I tried to convince myself. ' _When you wake up, you'll be on that cliff with Annie sleeping next to you. You'll be ready to clean the wall with Thomas and Mina the next day, your ears will be back to normal, and you'll be your normal, crippled self again._ ' My hands were shaking violently over my ears, causing my fingers to slip swiftly and crookedly. I felt the blades of my new ears graze my skin, and something sticky dripped on my shoulder. I knew it to be blood right away by the stench.

Armin left me as he began to verbally fight with Mikasa. Eren was shivering beside me, and I looked down at my sliced palms. The cuts were deep yet jagged in the wrinkled mass of flesh. Blood was waterfalling off my skin and pooling on the ground. Eren was too stunned at what the people before us were doing, but I'd accepted it as reasonable.

We were monsters, after all.

"We're human!" Eren suddenly boomed, drawing me back to reality. I looked at him in all my broken glory; tears streaming down my face, blood sometimes staining a patch of skin along my cheek, and my red eyes ugly and puffy. But he insisted we were human.

There was a scary pause, and all I could hear was the sweeping of dust hitting the stone ground. The Captain's eyes were hidden within the shadows of his face, then he finally moved his lips. I carefully awaited his answer. "I see. Don't think ill of me." Then, slowly but surely, he began to raise his hand to signal the cannon. "There's no other way. No man can prove...that they're not demons, after all..." He flicked his wrist.

Armin gasped as Mikasa's cat-like reflexes freaked. "Eren, Armin, Jade, we're going!"

Then I finally thought of a way to be useful.

Standing up with my mechanical leg, I moved in front of them. "Cover your ears," I hissed with a darkened expression. Startled, they agreed. But Mikasa still picked up Eren and began to run.

Using a sense of mine that I wasn't aware of, I moved a single blade in my left ear. A scraping sound echoed and boomed throughout the small area we were in. Then I moved the second one. Then the third. Then the fourth. This process continued until all of them were shifting and grinding against each other to create an abominable sound. Every person moved to cover their ears, except the Captain.

He, instead, threw his arm down to fire the cannon.

I didn't care. ' _Dying is better than living like a beast._ '

But I remembered Kenny and Joseph. I remembered Daddy and Mommy. Mikasa, Armin, and Eren...Marco, Bertolt, and Reiner...Jean and Annie...

They never called me a beast. They never called me a monster.

They might once they see me now, but I knew them too well. They would accept me without hesitation. They loved me...each in their own way.

Kenny loved me for my comfort. " _Call me Kenny, alright? That's what your… your brother called me._ "

Joseph loved me for being his sister. " _I love you, Bluejay. Don't worry, I'm right here_ _._ "

Daddy loved me for loving him back. " _Stay alive, my little Bluejay._ "

Mommy loved me for being her daughter. " _Live for other people_."

Mikasa loved me for my loyalty. " _I was wrong; you're the strongest person I know._ "

Armin loved me for our close friendship. " _I don't like how you meaninglessly put yourself down so much._ "

Eren loved me for my idealism. " _I think...of us like siblings. I can't imagine a life where you're not in it._ "

Marco loved me for being thoughtful towards others. " _You smile despite your leg. How is that not strong…?_ '

Bertolt loved me for my calm side. " _You deserve more than a leg that refuses to work._ "

Reiner loved me for my selflessness. " _Thanks, Jade._ "

Jean loved me for my honesty. " _Why don't you share your talent with us?_ "

And Annie...she loved me for being myself. Nothing more. " _I respect you._ "

I closed my eyes briefly as a memory poured into the unfilled cracks of my account on life.

* * *

 _'Bluejay, I won't be coming back anytime soon. Tell your father that you accidentally wandered into the forest during the night. Tell him you couldn't find me because you thought I ran outside the Wall.'_

 _'But...' The girl was utterly confused. She had woken up in an unfamiliar place, in the woods not far from the village. There was a bandage over her left elbow, and her eyes were adjusting to the darkness around her._

 _'Look, my little bluejay,' the person in front of her said. 'I gave you an anesthetic so that you wouldn't complain as I brought you here. Nobody can see this, okay? Never harm yourself on purpose, okay, sweetie?' The person was now cleaning up a new syringe needle, wiping it over with a cloth before sticking it in a jar and sucking out the contents. The contents were still blue, so the girl just assumed it was more anesthesia._

 _'But...Daddy said—'_

 _'It doesn't matter what your Daddy said!' the person suddenly snapped viciously. 'But remember this. Stay close to that Jaeger boy, okay?'_

 _The girl cocked her head to the side. 'Why?'_

 _'Because he will be the key to our survival.' And the girl's relative stabbed her in the neck with the needle, before pumping in the contents. The person was sobbing as they did so. 'I hope this was worth my life.' They cracked open a bottle and then poured the liquid between Jade's gaping lips. 'Your dream to go over the walls...can be complete now, bluejay. Save your friends for your Mommy, would you? She'll be proud of you if you do, okay?'_

* * *

And so, I dragged my hand across the blades of my hands viciously, feeling lightning burst from my fingertips and fly through the air. It was off instinct. But the urge in my heart was clear, forcing me to smirk darkly.

 _I want to protect my friends._

And then an explosion of steam ensued.


	8. Wholehearted Beliefs

• **Third Person's POV •**

Everybody sat around, as still as windless waters. They bore the appearance of bored, waiting, tired people. The bags under their eyes and the lifeless way they carried themselves made it blatantly obvious to any bystanders. But, each of them carried a certain signal that made them look wary and impatient for the next move.

Jean's knuckles were white as he held his waterskin.

Connie's jaw was locked and tight.

Ymir was sweaty, the heel of her boot tapping quietly against the stone floor.

Krista's eyes kept darting all over the place.

Reiner had a haunted look in his eyes, forcing himself to breathe every breath that passed his lips.

Bertolt's fingers were twitchy, constantly moving right to his blades whenever there was a sound that felt out of place.

Annie's index finger tapped relentlessly against the table, making the tiniest of dents with her fingernail.

However, every single one of them froze solid when a loud explosion violently shook the floors below them. Jean and Annie in particular felt their blood run cold; The noise—likely from some sort of cannon—was around where they dropped Jade and the others off.

"Cannon fire!?" Reiner clenched his teeth together as everyone within earshot of the blast flew into pandemonium.

"But why only one shot!?" Jean snapped, looking around frantically. His ears tuned in onto one of the cadets, shrieking loudly as he pointed.

"Look! There's smoke! It's from within the wall!" He wailed. "What's happening? Was the floodgate broken through?"

Looking to his side, Jean realized that Reiner looked truly mortified. The 2nd Ranker was clutching his chest and heaving in air painfully like an old man on his deathbed.

Jean briefly wondered why the 2nd Ranker was so scared, but he couldn't for long. His eyes were fixed on the smoke floating into the air. "Could it be...steam from a Titan...?" He wondered aloud, trembling and shivering like a wet cat.

Without thinking, the 6th Ranker grabbed the hilts that were once concealed within the folds of his military jacket and pressed the triggers harshly. He felt himself rocket into the sky but didn't mind the abruptness of it as his eyes scanned the rooftops. He immediately located where the cannon had gone off and flew away in that direction. He heard the sounds of Annie, and two others behind him, but was uncaring about it. Instead, he kept his gaze firmly pinned on the billowing smoke by Wall Rose.

No explosive shell could result in so much smoke erupting from one area. Jean's arms were tight as he moved to stand on a rooftop nearby the explosion. _Titans_.

"What the hell's going on here!?" Reiner hissed, looking down into the smoke with wary eyes. Jean, however, was scanning the area for any other signs of life, trying to find movement somewhere in the mask of steam.

Then part of it cleared. Jean's heart stopped.

It was a terrifying sight to see without context of the situation. There was a Titan—half-made, with a huge exposed rib cage that held two figures hostage inside. He recognized them as Armin and Mikasa right away. There was no skin on the Titan shielding them, and its one arm was outstretched in the direction of a recently-fired cannon.

The other one, however, was even less made than the one behind it. There were only bones with gaps of muscles along the structure, and the arms were fully made altogether. Skin, muscle tissue, carpals and metacarpals alike...they were all there along with a shield of the same hard substance that was on Jade's Titan before, only it was more controlled than before. They formed two blades over the Titan's forearms, and the arms crossed over one another. It made a protection from both the cannon fire and the soldiers in front. But her eyes, which were a startling emerald green color, were daunting and staring viciously at the Captain, who hadn't listened to Eren when he should have.

 **(BREAK)**

As the soldiers screaming horribly, Jade and Eren forced themselves out of their own respective prisons. They tore through flesh until air finally filled their lungs. Jade had spit flying from her mouth as she tore herself free, panting as she managed to free one of her arms. The other one, however, was locked tight and close to her metal leg.

Flinching, she slowly pried her right hand from the jaws of the boundless muscle. When her right hand was finally worked free, she meticulously pulled off the clinging material off each individual gear, each fragment of metal, and every strap of leather. If she just carelessly ripped her leg out, she would have damaged the complicated metalwork miracle of her right leg.

Once finished, she tore out her left leg to topple over and fall from her Titan's back. Eren himself had climbed down with ease despite him being panicked, but Jade had not been so fortunate. She landed squarely on her spine, just between the shoulder blades. Pain flared up through her chest, and the air was forcefully ripped from her lungs. Armin and Mikasa, finally over the shock of seeing their two friends summon these deadly beasts to protect them, instantly reacted to Jade's heavy fall.

"J-Jade!" Armin yelped quietly, dragging the hacking brunette over to their original spot. "Are you okay...!?"

Jade wheezed, a hand over her chest where the pain was most prominent. "B-barely...R-remind me never to fall like that again..." She kept on coughing, feeling burning vibrations through her chest with each hack.

Eren, who had just arrived before Jade, peered out from behind the rib of his evaporating Titan to see through the fog. He caught sight of the figures and began to speak in a quieter tone as Jade managed to get her coughing under control. "Whether they're figuring out what to do or use distracted, the Garrison can't see what we're going now," the 5th Ranker concluded, moving back towards the group of three behind him. "But in the end, they'll probably continue attacking."

• **Jade Covert's POV •**

I kept my gaze steady on Eren's back, slightly afraid of both him and myself due to our…strange abilities. Mikasa stood up as he laid out the current situation for us, and I shifted my eyes to her.

"I don't have the confidence to talk them down after showing this," Eren admitted, and I noticed his arms were twitching with fatigue. If I didn't have Armin supporting me with his own grip, I'd be in the same boat; quivering and unstable by nature. "It reminded me of something though." He pulled out the brass-colored key from underneath his shirt, revealing it to us. I remembered seeing it a number of times, but I never once asked him about it. "The basement. The basement of my house.

"Dad said I'd understand everything if I went there," he continued, and I was reminded of my own flashbacks. Of the adult telling me to stay by Eren's side no matter what. "He's also the one that turned me into this. If I get to that basement, I'll probably learn the truth about the Titans."

His hand clenched into a fist, and I cringed away as he slammed it onto the cracking ribs of his Titans. "Damn it!" He thundered. "Why did he keep it all a secret?! The Survey Corps searched for that information at the cost of thousands of lives. It's mankind's only hope!"

I tightened my muscles as I pushed Armin off gently. "You're telling me it was locked away in your own basement...!?" Rage made my insides flare up in a furious blaze, making me want to find the adult that made me a monster and Eren's dad. Just so I could beat them into a pulp. "Just what was going through their heads!?" I stopped talking when I noticed Mikasa's attention was briefly captured by something else, outside the shield of smoke.

Eren continued regardless, oblivious of Mikasa's twitches. "Come to think of it, where did he disappear to for five years—"

However, the 1st Ranker still went up to him and cut off his line of thought, grabbing him harshly by the shoulder. "Eren, we have other things to worry about now," she said, her eyes narrowed with focus. The smoke was beginning to clear from the air, making them all more and more visible. Even though my Titan's arm plates weren't vanishing away like the rest of it.

"Right," the 5th nodded, and he lent me his shoulder. I tilted my head to the side to avoid him getting scratched by my ears, but I gratefully took his offer. With my leg still slightly jammed from the muscle I couldn't work out, I had to wait for it to evaporate out.

The other soldiers outside the cloud of steam began speaking, and I turned my oddly powerful sense of hearing on them. "The smoke is clearing." "We'll attack immediately on sight." "Let's finish this quickly!"

"Remain on standby!" The Captain was barking out orders to stay calm, but he sounded like a frightened puppy. His voice kept cracking in certain areas, and I pitied him.

As the bone became weaker and weaker, it finally became too brittle to hold up the weight of the skulls. The one from my Titan clanged loudly, leaving nothing but dust and the white ears of it that were identical to mine. More steam flew upwards to mask our forms away.

As the others began talking amongst themselves, I moved to the hardened ears. They gleamed as if they were metal, but I knew they weren't. Somehow, the air of mystery that surrounded the walls was inlaid in these ears as well. I wanted to hide them, keep them hidden away for myself. I pressed my hand to it with that same greediness and gasped.

They were sucked away into my fingertips, gone and never to return.

The childhood trio stood behind me, gaping in awe and surprise and fear. I didn't blame them for the last one.

When I felt the last of the Titan flesh vanish from my mechanical leg, I turned the dial to 'WALK' so that I could converse better with the others. "We're...leaving this place..." Eren finally said once I got there, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. My ability to 'suck away' the Titan material was the least of our worries right now.

Mikasa and Armin froze on the spot, their eyes pinned on the two of us. I felt cherished in that one moment, but I knew it was too selfish to think about right now. "Where to? How?" Armin began to question us.

"Anywhere will do for now," I answered, touching Eren's hand with my own. Exhaustion was tugging at my muscles, making me want to collapse on the spot. "We'll climb the wall from there and head to his basement. But we'll turn into Titans first."

Armin's eyes bulged as I said that so casually. "You can do that?" He gasped.

"I'm not too sure how we do it myself," the 5th Ranker admitted. "but I think we can."

My finger spasmed uncomfortably. "Just like how a person can't explain how they move their arms," I offered an analogy.

"Earlier, I unconsciously focused on blocking the cannon," Eren continued off from there, and I was mildly happy that our strange in-sync talking was still working efficiently. "That's why the body had no other function and easily fell apart. This time I'll go for something stronger." I noticed then that both Eren and I were breathing heavily, our chests heaving to keep us from passing out. "The fifteen-meter class that I kicked around all those Titans with should suffice!" Blood dripped from his nose, going over his lips quickly. However, he didn't notice.

"Eren, your nose is bleeding."

"Jade, why is there blood coming from your mouth and ears?"

Both Mikasa and Armin spoke at the same time, but that's when I realized Armin was right about me. I didn't even notice that my mouth was filling up slowly with blood, leaking out of the corners of my mouth to form fang-like patterns. I coughed, sending the rest of it flying in the other direction. I was careful to avoid Armin and Mikasa from my spray, then I wiped my mouth.

I then brushed my fingertips over my ears, making sure not to touch the blades concealed inside. There was indeed something warm and sticky steadily streaming from underneath the disc that hid the hilts of the blades. It trailed down my jaw and dripped off my chin.

"You guys are looking pale, and your breathing's heavy too," Armin continued to point out. "It's clearly taking a toll on your body!"

Eren wiped the rest of his blood off his face. "I couldn't care less about my well-being," he hissed, bags forming underneath his eyes. I knew that I was looking roughly the same. "I've got two ideas in mind. If you guys don't try to cover for us, you'll be spared at least. We've already gotten you two in enough of a mess."

"So, we'll be moving solo from here on out," we decided, though I spoke the thought.

Armin sucked in a breath, his shoulders trembling. "No, I—"

"Eren...Jade...I'm coming too," Mikasa growled, looking as fierce as the beast Annie claimed she was.

"You can't," Eren instantly replied.

Mikasa was clearly hurt, but she kept trying. "If I can't keep up, you can just abandon me. But I don't have to listen to what you say."

"I'm telling you to cut it out already!" The 5th Ranker snapped, furious with his adoptive sister. I noticed Armin was slowly slinking away, fear evident in his sky-blue eyes. "I'm neither your little brother nor a kid!"

Knowing that this was a personal argument, I moved away with my metal leg clicking uncomfortably. A few pieces were missing from the entirety of the mechanism, making it loud and jerky in some areas. But I pressed myself lightly against the shield my Titan made with her arms and listened in closely on the discussions outside.

"Captain, the high-explosive shell is almost loaded. How shall we proceed?"

"Await my signal!" The Captain boomed.

"Sir!"

I sighed slightly and kept my eyes focused on the outer edge to see four figures standing on a nearby rooftop. I recognized them easily and smiled with tears of joy brimming my eyelids.

It was Reiner, Bertolt, Jean, and _Annie_.

Each of them looked terrified in their own right, but I merely breathed in relief, wiping my mouth again from any possible blood that still lay there. Reiner and Bertolt looked horrified, their faces pale from what I could see.

But Jean and Annie looked different. Instead of scared, they were worried.

' _Jean, worried? That's a good one,_ ' I found myself mentally scoffing at the ridiculousness of such a suggestion.

But it was the truth. Jean was looking around, trying to find someone. I didn't know who that person was, but I was wondering. Who, of us, could make him genuinely concerned?

"Eren, I—" Mikasa looked to be on the brink of tears, fighting to let the 5th Ranker allow her to join him. I moved back to them, satisfied with the information I received.

"I said I had two ideas in mind, didn't I?" Eren interrupted her, making hope shine in her dark brown eyes. He turned his head to look at the blonde who had been sitting by them with a faraway, helpless look on his face. But he stiffened as Eren spoke. "Armin, I'll leave everything for you to decide."

Armin's lips moved, but no sound came out because of his shock.

"We're well aware of just how unrealistic the first plan is," I murmured, kneeling down with a flick of the dial to 'KNEEL'. "It would be the most effective to use this Titan power systematically under the army's command."

Eren glanced sideways at me before taking up the mantle. "I know it's a lot to ask, but if you think you can convince the Garrison that we're not a threat, we'll put our trust in you and stay. That's my second idea."

"If you think you can't," I whispered comfortingly, rubbing his shoulder with my left hand. "We'll have to resort to the first idea. You have fifteen seconds to decide."

"Whether you can do it or not, I'll respect any opinion you have," Eren smiled slightly at the blonde, who was shaking in surprise and fear.

The blue-eyed cadet sucked in a breath and calmed down a hint before talking again. "Eren...Jade...why would you entrust me with such a decision?" He asked.

Eren and I both chuckled and smiled at Armin right after. "The worse a situation is, the better your decisions are, you know?" The 5th Ranker grinned lopsidedly. "I'm willing to bet on that, and I'm sure Jade is, too."

"When did I ever..."

"Lots of times," I replied with a joking grin on my lips. I realized everyone was smiling reassuringly at Armin, hoping that he'd realize just how important he really was. "Five years ago, if you didn't call Mr. Hannes, Mikasa and Eren would've been devoured by a Titan, and I would have bled to death from that rock that crippled me."

The bones from Eren's Titan shattered again, breaking against the ground with a loud boom and a small explosion of smoke. But it also seemed to signify Armin's realization of his importance. Tears gathered in his lashes, and I felt my own eyes doing the same out of the love I had for him. He was like a little brother to me, and I loved him for it.

"Armin, we're out of time," Eren said quietly, and my perceptive ears picked up the sound of a loaded cannon getting ready to fire within mere seconds. I heard every signal and winced. My eyes went to look up at Jean and Annie, fighting against the grip of Bertolt and Reiner. They were scared, and judging from the 2nd Ranker's face, they were trying to stop the cannon. I smiled.

Armin finally stood up, his back erect and his face dark with determination. Eren and Mikasa watched him with awe, as he said "I'll convince them no matter what. Do anything you guys can to show you're not a threat." Eren and Mikasa nodded, with knowing smiles on their faces. I chuckled and pressed my fingertips to the shield that blocked his path.

"I'll take this down for you," I grinned, removing the non-evaporating Titan material. But then I tugged on his jacket before he began to sprint. He looked at me, slightly shocked.

"I believe in you, Armin."

He went rosy red in seconds but kept removing his ODM gear to appear friendly and as un-threatening as physically possible. The scabbards made loud clanging noises that echoed throughout the area, making the soldiers around freeze up in fright. But Armin held his hands in a surrender position as he ran out of the steam into full view of the others. It was around then that I passed out, exhausted by everything that had happened.

• **Third Person's POV •**

With the soldiers tense with fright at the loud sounds Armin had made during his run to see them, the blonde listened carefully to everyone around him. It was a skill Jade had taught him during one of their 'intellectual talks' while eating.

"So, you've finally revealed your true colors, monster!" The Captain's voice, though loud and painful on the ears, was shaky and unstable. He was justifiably terrified. "I'll signal...I'll signal the cannon!"

This man was the type of person who made assumptions on a whim and wouldn't want to believe anything else besides the words that came out of his mouth.

"He is not the enemy of mankind!" Armin shouted, struggling not to stutter. "We're willing to share any and all information that we have!"

Unfortunately, the Captain didn't take the bait laid out for him. "I have no intention of hearing your pleas!" He snarled. "We've seen everything we need to know. There's no room for discussion!"

Like an idiot, the Captain made a small way out of the tight corner he was backing Armin into. "If you claim he's not our enemy, then prove it! If you can't, we'll simply eliminate the threat!"

"There's no need for proof!" Armin snapped back, and he felt his confidence growing. ' _That's right_ ,' he thought ' _It's unnecessary!_ ' "Besides, how we see him is not an issue!"

"What!?" The bearded man cried.

"I've heard that many have seen them in action!" Armin continued, making eye contact with many of the soldiers that were still holding their weapons to both him and the trio behind him. "If that's true, they must've also seen them fighting the Titans! And that includes the sight of the surrounding Titans swarming them! In other words, the Titans saw him as a targeted predation, just like the rest of mankind!"

"No matter how we go about it, this fact cannot be denied!"

The other members of the Garrison relaxed a little, realizing the blonde was correct. They began murmuring amongst themselves, stating the ridiculousness of the idea of Titans as allies. But, each of them was lowering a gun and a blade, slowly falling into Armin's reassuring persuasions.

And yet, the Captain refused to listen. "Prepare to attack!" He boomed, his voice rolling across the small area. "Don't be fooled by his clever tricks!"

Armin, Eren, and Mikasa all stiffened. Jade, who had been unconscious with her head on Eren's lap—with her ears wrapped in cloth to avoid any further stabbings—woke as his quadriceps tightened underneath her head. The blue-eyed girl looked up to see Armin struggling to argue with the Captain. She let out a small breath and smiled.

No matter the situation, the blonde was doing fantastically.

"Their actions have always been beyond our comprehension," the Captain continued, oblivious of Jade's awakening. He was throwing out random, worthless, easily refutable evidence, and the brunette was pissed at him, though she was still too fatigued to lift herself off Eren's lap. "It must be possible for them to imitate our form and speech to delude us!"

"We cannot allow them to do as they please any longer!"

Everyone became blinded by the shield his words made. ' _What a pathetic man_ ,' Jade thought to herself.

Armin, however, was panicking. He couldn't think of anything to say. The Captain was too scared to think, unable to listen to anyone else. ' _Eren, Mikasa, Jade!_ ' He turned around, horrified and purely worried for their sakes. But what he saw surprised him.

Eren and Mikasa didn't look the least bit concerned, instead nodding to him with a smile on their faces. And Jade, though still conscious, gave him an honest giggle and a thumbs-up before she lost the little energy she had regained. But even while unconscious, she still bore a small, sweet smile that was perfect for someone like her.

Feeling his resolve increase by a tenfold, he slammed his fist against his chest in a flawless salute. "I am a soldier that has long since offered his life for the revival of mankind!" He practically screamed. "To perish while obeying that conviction would be my life's greatest glory! If we were to utilize their Titan powers in addition to our remaining forces, recapturing this town would no longer be impossible! Praying for the glory of mankind, I shall elaborate on their strategic worth with all the time I have left!"

Everyone watched him in sheer awe, amazed at his inspiring speech. He'd used every tactic in the book by this point to try and save the lives of his friends before, but now he was taking the advice of a friend of his. ' _Speak from your heart. Anyone could believe something like that, not because it sounds right, but because it feels right._ '

The Captain, still blinded by his own beliefs, slowly raised his hand with a fearful panic. He couldn't be convinced, deafened by his own fear and terror. No one could achieve such a thing.

Mikasa made a fist over her blades.

Eren lifted his hand to his teeth, with Jade clutched closely to him.

But the Captain gave a twisted, maniacal smile before throwing his arm down to signal the cannons. The monsters before him were going to die—his life was no longer at risk.

Or at least he thought so.

"That's enough," said an aged man, who held the Captain's arm with an iron-like grip. He wore a playful grin on his face, though it was subtle thanks to his mustache. "As always, despite having a large body, you're as feeble as a fawn."

"C-Commander Pixis...?" Stammered the Captain.

The Commander moved the Captain's arm down, tearing away the signal before continuing to speak as he walked forward towards Armin's trembling figure. "Are you blind to the brilliance of that salute?" He asked, looking at Armin with careful eyes. He kept walking until he was at the very edge of the platform they stood on. "I just arrived, but a messenger filled me in earlier." Turning his head, he looked at the Captain with a look that resembled a sneer. "Go take command of the reinforcements. I think it'd be best to hear what they have to say."

Armin, who'd been stiff with shock and fear, collapsed to his knees. There were happy tears in his eyes while he sweat profusely. He was panting like he'd been holding his breath while saluting. But the look of pure joy and relief on his face was refreshing. Hardly anyone made that sort of face anymore.

At Armin's back, Mikasa was walking forward with Jade cradled in her arms, the brunette finally out for good. Eren stumbled behind the two, a hand on Mikasa's shoulder to keep himself upright. The conscious two were smiling widely at Armin's success.

And Jade was tucked against Mikasa's shoulder, sleeping soundly. She was smiling the same sweet smile that she fell asleep with.

Even from far away, Pixis could tell that it was a smile of nothing but wholehearted belief. And, for some reason, found himself smiling in return to the girl who still had no clue of his very presence.


	9. Comeback

• **Jade Covert's POV •**

I kept cringing as my leg clicked and clacked, making unnecessary noises as it bent the knee joint and snapped back unnaturally. The pieces I was missing were vital to efficiency, and I wanted to go back to where my first Titan had evaporated so I could put them back. Part of me even wanted to request that someone bring me the pieces I required, but that would be selfish and unnecessary. After all, my leg technically still worked fine.

I was red with embarrassment as Commander Pixis moved over to me to study it up close. He bent down a little, and his eyes carefully scanned the complex machinery. They glossed over the main gears, and instead committed the tiny little scratches and dents to memory. His hand went forward and rested on the knee area. "What happened to you, soldier?" He asked kindly, looking up as I twisted my dial to 'STAND'.

"I was in Shiganshina District the day Wall Maria was broken into," I said simply, as a way of explanation. I didn't want to go into detail, even though he was the Commander and all. "A bit of debris crushed my leg, but my nerves were only damaged enough for me to not move it. I can feel pain and all that, but I can't move it. So, I got this to clear that up." I gestured the full length of my leg to point out the most obvious thing—the intricate weave of metal over it.

The old man wore a tired, but pleasant expression as he erected his back. "You can use ODM gear with this?"

I nodded. "I have a dial to switch my leg into certain positions, and I have one for the ODM gear, too. I only use one sword, though, since I need my other hand to work my leg."

"Impressive..." the Commander hummed, before taking a swig out of his flask and looking over the edge of the wall to see Titans clawing at the impressively resilient stones. He chuckled a bit while Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and I moved into a line, so we could speak with him with a higher manner of respect. "I guess I won't find one after all..." He looked over his shoulder with a sly smile. "I wouldn't mind being devoured, if it's by an exquisitely beautiful female."

"I guess he didn't see my Titan, then..." I muttered under my breath, earning a small snicker from Eren as I sat down next to him. He was squatting, but clearly tired. I was utterly exhausted, so I turned my dial to 'RELAX' and let myself slump over to provide more comfort to my entire body and mind.

I must have blanked out for a small period of time, because when I woke up, the Commander was talking about something completely different. "I see," he had said, facing away from us. "So, you say that all the answers lie within that basement?"

Eren bobbed his head, and I noticed he was leaning on my shoulder. "Yes," he replied. "Do you believe me?"

"As long as you yourself aren't certain, I'd say I can only keep it in mind, at best," Pixis answered, turning away from the ruined Trost District to look at us dead in the eye. "However, I believe myself capable of seeing the truth of things." He moved his hazel eyes to look at me next, before looking at each of us individually. A reassuring grin touched his lips. "I shall guarantee your safety."

All of us relaxed the muscles we didn't know were tensed, and I released the breath I was unknowingly holding.

"Recruit Arlert, was it?" The Commander asked, looking at the blonde with a careful gaze as he turned all the way around.

Armin saluted, placing a fist on his chest. "Sir!"

"Earlier, you said that if we utilize this 'Titan power', it'd be possible to recapture this town, did you not?"

The blue-eyed recruit swallowed and opened his mouth to reply when the old man cut him off before he even spoke.

"Did you truly believe that, or was it a vain act of desperation?" The wrinkles around his eyes became more visible as he narrowed his eyes scrutinizingly at Armin.

Armin looked down at the ground, unable to lock eyes with the Commander. "It was...both!" He sounded tired, too. "What I was trying to say back then was that Eren and or Jade could carry the large boulder to seal the destroyed gate while in Titan form." He looked ashamed as he looked at Eren and myself who were wide-eyed at the suggestion. "It's an idea I came up with on the spot, but I hoped the possibility to break out of this deadlock could be seen in their power."

Commander Pixis gave something that sounded a bit like a grunt, and he turned away from Armin to once again look out at all of the destruction that was Trost. The Last Ranker seemed to internally panic at this, and he began talking again at a much higher octave. "Of course, it was all a genuine attempt to survive!"

The Commander grunted again. "A genuine attempt to survive..." he sighed. He looked down and smiled as he continued. "The most trustworthy words I'll ever hear." He took another gulp from his flask, before turning around and walking over to Eren and I. "Well, Recruits Jaeger and Covert?" he smirked. He squatted down to meet us at eye-level.

"Sir?" I blinked. His breath stank of whiskey, making me lean back a little at the intensity.

"Can you seal that gate?"

I froze up at the question, and I was sure the other three at my side were stiff as a board too. "I... w-well..." My Titan had no strength whatsoever, more built for combat and speed. Eren's was a powerhouse, made purely of muscle. He could most definitely lift that boulder, but I would only be in the way, and a nuisance, at that. "I don't know," I admitted.

"We're just as clueless as the rest of us present here," Eren added, looking downwards. Mikasa gave her adoptive brother a worried and pitying look. "So, regardless of whether we can do it or not, I can't answer half-heartedly."

"Oh, that's true. I apologize," Pixis chuckled. "That was the wrong question." His eyes flashed menacingly, and I winced away. "Will you do it or not—which is it?"

"..." I shook a bit, feeling rather hopeless and useless at that point in time. But then his gaze moved to over our shoulders to look at the small town below. I followed the line his eyes made, and looked too. Eren followed my lead.

There, behind the Wall we sat upon, was a town. There, horrified cadets who had lost friends and possibly family were. Townspeople who lost their homes. Soldiers who lost their nerve. Maybe even people like me, who lost a limb. People who lost everything. People who lost their bravery. People who lost their hope.

People that I wanted to help.

Eren's hands became fists as he whirled around to look the Commander in the eye. His teal ones burned at the sight of Pixis' hazel. He glanced sideways at me, and I was struggling to hold it together. But we both turned back to him.

"I'll do it."

Pixis leaned back a bit, shocked. I looked at Eren, and bit back a sob. I was terrified.

"I'll help!" My eyes were squeezed shut, fighting back tears of honest regret and self-hatred. "I'm not sure whether I can do it or not, but I'll help!" My teeth were clenched tightly, and Eren placed a comforting hand on my back as I hunched over and tried my damn hardest not to break down crying.

What had I just agreed to?

Commander Pixis, smiling, placed a hand on our shoulders. "Well said," he grinned. "You both are quite the soldiers."

I wrapped my arms around myself, and began sobbing dryly as Eren gave me a gentle hug. The old man, however, walked to the very edge of the wall behind us to yell "Staff officers, assemble! Prepare to strategize!"

"What? Seriously?" Armin was thunderstruck at the suddenness of the action. "Calling this plan 'optimistic' would be an understatement. How can we just go ahead with it?"

"I agree with you," Eren said to his friend, looking depressed himself as he continued to try and console me. "But it's pointless to question his decision. I'm sure Commander Pixis can see something we can't.

"Something we can't see?" The blonde looked thoroughly stumped for once, and my crying slowed to just tears flowing down my face, and the occasional hiccup. _I'm such a coward._

"Besides, there's probably a fundamental issue to deal with before executing the plan," the 5th Ranker added, finally removing his hand from my back. "I'm sure the Commander is fully cognizant of that."

"Which means..." Armin tensed, and looked ready to hide behind Mikasa, who'd been characteristically silent this entire time.

"The Titans aren't our only enemies..." I wiped my face free of my tears as I said that, trying to control my erratic breathing.

Before Armin could reply his thoughts, Commander Pixis strutted back over with an energy I didn't think someone his age could possess. "Time is of the essence," he said loudly. "We have a role for you to fulfill, young soldiers." Behind him stood two other Garrison members, likely his guards or something to that effect.

Twisting my dial on instinct, I stood up with a loud click coming from my metal leg. I ran my tattered sleeve over my face one last time to hide the snot and tears before putting on a brave face, the fires of determination flaring up in my soul. ' _It's now or never for us. I'd better make it count._ '

* * *

• **Third Person's POV •**

Jean was stuck inside the enormous crowd that the Commander had called. He was wedged firmly between Bertolt and another person he didn't know the name of. It was hot and humid, and Jean hated the atmosphere. He wished he was by Marco or even Connie for all he cared. Being with Bertolt, the silent giant of the 104th Training Corps, was a bit unsettling and honestly quite awkward.

The 6th Ranker listened as other cadets were complaining and quivering with unnatural fear. They were spreading rumors, ideas about why they were all lined up behind the gate into Wall Rose territory. They were loudly wailing about how it was suicide to try and reclaim Trost. But, every time someone said that word, Jean's mind would drift to the image of a sleeping face, with gleaming metal spikes replacing her once-human ears.

Then, he heard something that really caught his attention. It was Dazz, a fellow cadet who was ranked 51st in the entirety of the 104th Corps. He was well-known as a selfish coward that Krista and Ymir saved one time during training. He was worthier of the last position than Armin was, as his skills were mediocre, and his attitude was simply horrendous. However, his strategy was sometimes applaudable. But, Jade and many others truly detested him. Marco and Krista were the only ones who were willing to put up with him.

The 7th Ranker, who was nearby, was fighting to calm Dazz down with his kindness. The 51st didn't listen and instead continued to shriek and sob like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

In front of Jean, there were two girls. One of them was shaking as she said "Hey, I wonder if someone will rebel here too."

"I also want to die on my own terms," her friend whimpered, cloaked in a thick layer of cold sweat. Jean could feel her fear wafting off of her, she was so scared.

"Hey, you two!" A Garrison member with daunted eyes rushed over, his voice deep and raspy.

The blonde one stiffened, and she immediately looked at the man with tears in her eyes. "I-I was just joking!" She cried, her voice cracking.

"Do it," the soldier said, earning a confused but still horrified look from the blonde cadet.

She began to sweat more, creating stains around her collar. "H-huh?"

"Make a real scene," the Garrison man hissed, leaning in close enough to the girl that it looked like they were about to kiss. "With as many people as you can."

The girl looked ready to break down and sob as her face drained of all color.

"Many of us in the Garrison aren't in agreement too," the man continued, making Jean finally glare at him. "You'll take advantage of the chaos and escape!"

"Where would you go then?" Jean finally snarled at the trembling man. He didn't seem to get that so many sacrifices had been made for this cause. Running away would say that they were for naught.

Jean then immediately looked down at his feet, recalling a certain night of his training years. Eren's speech was composed entirely of those words—sacrifices shouldn't be ignored. He blushed for a small second, embarrassed that he was beginning to think like Eren, the delusional idiot, the suicidal blockhead.

"I'll go to see my daughter!" The man said firmly, glaring at Jean with a hatred the latter was quite familiar with. "The wall won't hold for long either, after all."

Jean sighed and looked back up at the top of the wall. He was wondering where Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and Jade were.

He hoped and prayed to whatever god that there might be that they were safe and sound. Despite previous differences, imagining life without those four was just too terrible a thought.

* * *

Pixis walked calmly with Eren and Jade, fiddling with the metal flask in one hand. "It's said that before Titans claimed dominance of the land, mankind was locked in endless bloody battles over differences in race and ideals," he said, his eyes pinned on Trost and the smoke rising from the rooftops. "Supposedly, someone then said, 'if something beyond man appeared before us as a powerful foe, mankind will take up arms together in unity.' What do you make of that?"

Jade gripped her arm and didn't say a word, remembering her father and mother telling her a similar tale. Instead, she turned a gear in her leg to make it move more smoothly. However, much to her annoyance, the clicking never stopped.

"There's a legend like that?" Eren finally asked, looking towards the Commander with a vague expression. He hummed in thought for a brief moment to think of his answer.

"I think it's a foolish way of thinking, with a bit of logic behind it," Jade answered, her eyes locked on the crushed district to her left. "This person said that mankind will unite, but they clearly forgot that these people fighting a single enemy are only human." She tilted her head forwards, letting her bangs shield her eyes from the world. "It's pathetic and uninteresting."

Eren seemed rather shocked by my response, but he spoke up afterward. "It seems rather optimistic. Doesn't interest me either, though."

Pixis then began laughing a bit. "Your characters are quite cynical, much like myself," he sniggered.

"That's because even now, when that powerful foe has our backs against a wall, it's hard to say that humanity is united," Eren explained, looking slightly on edge at the thought.

The old man shrugged good naturedly. "True, that certainly needs to change," he sighed as we walked into an area where some people stood. Cannons lined the tracks that were there, and some squad captains were talking with their troops. Some saluted the Commander at the sight of him, others pretended he wasn't even there.

Pixis didn't take note of this, as he was analyzing the two Titan-shifting recruits' personalities based on their answers. Eren was fairly easy to read; he seemed impulsive and was very focused on saving mankind, as his response was exactly like Pixis' when he was Eren's age. But Jade, the girl, was so much more complex. She was very observant, and quite cynical as well, but not to the point that Eren was. She had a different personality than Eren's for certain, because sometimes she'd be oddly cheerful before plummeting into a pit of despair and painfully bridled rage, whereas Eren remained relatively the same all the time.

The Commander was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice Squad Leader Hannes' reaction to the two recruits behind him.

Hannes' first reaction was shock. It was two of the children he saved five years ago, both of them grown-up and alive. Hannes hadn't seen either of them since they went into training, but now they were grown-up and mature.

Eren's round cheeks had faded into a razor-sharp jawline, making his appearance manlier and more commanding. His hair had remained the same, but it was a bit lighter and just a tad streakier with blonde from being in the sun for so long while he trained. His shoulders had broadened with muscle, and his sides were now trimmed instead of pudgy. But his eyes hadn't changed at all—they were still fiercely glowing with a raging fire of green and blue.

And Jade's back was straight, her posture was flawless. Her face had lost all of the baby fat that she once had as a child, making it sharp and elegant. Her eyelashes had thickened, and her eyes had changed from a raw cobalt to a deep, polished sapphire, giving her the appearance of a beautiful woman and not a naïve child. Her walk was no longer awkward and gimpy, now smooth and effortless. She was almost as tall as Eren, slim and lean from her athletic training as a soldier.

They both looked like forces to be reckoned with. Hannes' chest swelled briefly with pride.

But her ears were so strange. Gleaming like metal and jutting out like broken feathers. But then something else hit the Squad Captain, even harder, in fact; why were she and Eren walking beside Commander Pixis?

As Hannes continued to stare at the changed cadets, Eren and Jade noticed him. The brunette froze up a little as they made eye contact, but then she smiled and gave a sweet wave. But Eren wore an unhappy frown and made a few motions with his finger as if to say, ' _get back to work'_. As soon as Jade noticed her friend doing that too, she snickered behind her hand while pursing her lips together to avoid cackling out loud at her savior's misery.

"Hi, Mr. Hannes," Jade whispered to him with a grin. "Sorry, I can't bring you beer today."

Hannes, however, chuckled and bore a proud smile. She was happy. Something he hadn't seen from her since she lost her leg. But now...she felt joy. He didn't mind her ears. He didn't mind the creaks of her mechanical leg. He was just happy that she was happy. And, due to her joy, Hannes somehow knew that Mikasa and Armin were safe, too.

Meanwhile, Jade was flicking her dial over and over again, trying to make the clicking stop. It resulted in a slight limp, but it was a bit quieter that way. She kept following Pixis, with Eren close next to her.

The old man in front of the two teens pulled out his flask once again and took another drink from it. But then he passed it behind him. "Care for a swig?"

"Nah, I'm good, sir," Jade smirked, looking at Eren with sly eyes.

The 5th Ranker, unlike the 12th, glanced at the flask and nodded his head sharply. "Yes, sir!" He said, before taking a large gulp. His eyes bulged for a moment, and he spat out the liquid immediately. Jade, unable to control her laughter anymore, nearly fell over in a fit of giggles.

"Y-you..." she was fighting to stand up straight, with Pixis and Eren staring at her. Pixis was smirking to himself, while Eren was frowning unhappily and indignantly. "You idiot—ha ha...!" Wiping a tear from her eye, Jade forced herself to stand squarely on her feet before continuing. Her cheeks would puff out every time she flicked her gaze over to Eren.

* * *

Jean was rubbing his arm, feeling uncomfortable as time elongated further. Bertolt was still silent as ever. The two girls in front were whispering amongst themselves and whimpering. The Garrison soldier from earlier had given up on the girls, leaving to go convince someone else. But then, at the very top of the wall, a small silhouette appeared in the shape of a man with a smooth head. He could barely see the shapes of two other heads behind him, but they were too far away to discern their appearance. They appeared to be talking, but Jean didn't bother as the Commander cleared his throat.

Out of nowhere, a huge, authoritative voice echoed through the entire town. Somehow, Jean knew it was the tiny speck of a Commander perched on top of the wall. " _Attention!_ " The old man bellowed. Everyone froze in place, stopping their words and actions.

"I will now elaborate on the plan to recapture Trost District!" He continued to yell. "The objective of this plan is to seal the hole in the destroyed gate!"

At his words, they all froze. The incredulity was evident on every soldier's face, both cadet and graduate. Marco was paused in his actions of restraining Dazz, instead overcome with shock. "Huh? Seal?" The 7th Ranker was blown away. "Is that even possible...?"

After he let his declaration sink into their minds, Pixis continued. "I will now explain how we intend to seal the hole!" His voice was booming, and no one knew how he was capable of speaking after yelling for such a distance. But, he gestured to the side to signal for the two figures next to him to step forward. Both saluted respectfully, and looked out onto the crowd. "Belonging to the Training Corps, this is Eren Jaeger and Jade Covert!"

Waves of fear and surprise rolled over the 104th Corps. Jean's teeth clenched, and his eyes widened as he noticed the overly long brown hair ending at Jade's thighs. It was much longer than her hip-length hairstyle that she'd had before she was found inside the corpse of a Titan. Eren looked the same, only he'd changed his clothes since he'd been found. Jean's hand immediately went to his chest, just over his heart as his nails dug into the fabric shielding his skin. _Jade...Eren..._

Connie, Ymir, and Krista were a little way away, and the 8th Ranker stiffened as he loudly cried "E-Eren and Jade...!?" From what he last knew, the 5th and 12th Rankers were supposed to be dead, swallowed and killed by Titans whilst in a blind rage. And, since they earned their information from Connie, Ymir and Krista were just as amazed by the two's unknown survival.

The Commander kept on speaking. "They are the products of successful top-secret Titan transformation research," he shouted. "They are capable of generating a Titan's body and moving it according to their will!"

Connie's eyes bulged unnaturally, and he frowned a little. "Is the Commander making absolutely no sense right now, or am I just stupid?" He asked, leaning over to the 10th and 11th Rankers to his left. Krista looked purely horrified, but Ymir seemed to be taking the information a bit more smoothly, instead staring up at her two acquaintances.

"Shut up for a bit, stupid," she scolded Connie, her gaze never leaving the cripple. ' _How...'_

Jade turned her head as Pixis explained the details of the plan. She wanted to know how she fit into the plan of resealing the wall, despite her Titan's lack of strength. "In his Titan form, Eren will lift the boulder in the vicinity of the front gate, carry it to the destroyed gate, and seal the gate!" The old man narrowed his eyes at the crowd below. "Your duty is...to protect him from other Titans until he's moved the boulder!"

Realizing she didn't need to be up by the Commander while he spoke, she bowed to him curtly before leaving to hear the plans from Armin and the strategists he was with. "There's no need to fight the Titans?" One of them asked in surprise.

"I-I'm sorry," the blonde apologized right away, glancing towards Mikasa, who'd been listening to Pixis but remaining by Armin's side. "It's not my place as a recruit to say anything."

"Forget that," the man said firmly. "Continue explaining."

The Last Ranker scratched his head. "R-right." He noticed Jade watching beside Mikasa but didn't mind her. "Titans generally attack in response to larger groups of people, so if we could take advantage of that and act as bait to group them close to the wall, I believe we could keep them away from Eren with minimal contact overall. Furthermore, the baited Titans can later be taken care of with cannons, preventing any unnecessary casualties. However, we can't just leave Eren unguarded, so I believe we should have a small, elite squad escort him. All that said, we cannot avoid fighting the Titans that enter through the hole. It'll be up to the abilities of the elite squad at that point."

The man with Armin nodded his head. "Okay, understood," he said firmly. "Let's replan using that as a basis."

The blonde looked right into his superior's eyes. "But this plan assumes that Eren can reliably carry the boulder and seal the hole," he argued, looking doubtful of himself more than Eren. "I'm hesitant about carrying out the plan with that uncertainty in mind."

Jade tuned that out briefly. She hadn't been mentioned once since the plan was decided. Mikasa—noticing the cripple's depressed emotions—placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Jade?"

"Mika..." Jade used that same childish nickname, looking sad. She seemed to have been forgetting to call Mikasa that at times, earning the strong girl's attention right way. "I feel useless so far..."

The 1st Ranker cocked her head to the side. "How do you mean?"

She sighed dejectedly. "My Titan is meant for speed, not strength. I can't lift that boulder with Ren and help him out. I'm just meant to stand on the sidelines..."

Mikasa, realizing the problem, smiled a bit. A rare expression, lately. "Jade, Armin explained this a bit earlier, so it makes sense that you didn't hear about it. You might be traveling around Trost on your own and saving any other cadets from serious problems or deaths. If it becomes serious, you can transform and briefly kill the Titans there. Or, if you find it more efficient, you can stay by Eren's side and protect him alongside the elite squadron. There are other things you can decide to do, but it's all your decision. Out of everyone here, it was well-supported that you get the most freedom in terms of how to fight. Just remember that when you become a Titan, you become a beacon for other Titans."

Jade, her eyes wide from the sudden force of responsibility shoving down on her shoulders, shuddered uncomfortably. "W-why...would they give me...a Titan-shifter...freedom...? Y-you saw it yourself...they don't trust me...You saw those looks in their eyes..."

"And those looks will change after this," the 1st Ranker sighed, looking slightly relieved. "Now, just make up your mind over what you're going to do, and Armin will let everyone know. Just...make sure you consider yourself as much as everyone else. I know how you think, and I want you to think strategically about how valuable you are." And with that, Mikasa turned and went back to listening to the plans, leaving Jade shivering in her place.

Jade bit her lip and looked around with a trembling form. "E-excuse me?" she reached out and tapped the arm of a passing Garrison soldier. He turned and froze up when he saw her ears. "D-do you have a rag or something that I can use?"

Nodding too hurriedly to look natural, he pulled out a polishing rag from his pocket before walking away at an abnormal pace. It was clear that he was frightened of Jade, and she exhaled softly because of it. "...Sorry to bother you..." she murmured to the air, now that the man had left her. She twisted the dial on her leg to allow her to sit on a bow nearby, and she began to wipe down her leg and try to repair the unbearable clicking it had been making.

She rearranged the gears when suddenly, a silver haired Garrison woman wearing goggles knelt before her. She had an unpleasant expression, like nothing would ever make her smile. She held out her hand, and Jade blinked at it for a few awkward seconds. "I'm Rico, one of the people charged with protecting your friend, Eren Jaeger."

Blushing, the 12th Ranker took her hand and shook it embarrassedly. "S-sorry!" She apologized with a weird grin on her own lips. "I'm Jade Covert. What do you need from me?"

Rico stood up and straightened her back before pointing at my metallic leg, which I was unconsciously still wiping down. "I heard you need parts to fix that leg of yours. Describe what pieces you need, and I'll try to have them delivered here before we begin to clear out Trost."

Jade's brows furrowed, now more serious. "How will you get them here in time?" She inquired, knowing full well that those sorts of rush jobs resulted in many mistakes.

"We have our ways." For a brief second, a smirk touched Rico's lips. "Now, what parts do you need? Regardless of what you plan to do in this strategy, if you lose your mobility, you would have to resort to your 'Titan powers'."

Knowing the truth behind her words, Jade checked the leg swiftly with her eyes, looking to see what was missing and or broken. "I'll need a wrench, some oil, a knife..." The mechanic listed a number of items, like leather and an assortment of gears. Rico nearly looked overwhelmed, but Jade paused before it was beyond her memory. "Got all that?"

The silver-haired elite nodded her head. "I'll be right back with those." And she walked off. Jade watched after her for a bit before rubbing at a small spot behind her knee with the rag and beginning to think.

She couldn't be with Eren, since that would draw away too many Titans. Joining the soldiers who were acting as bait wouldn't be efficient either, since they would certainly be more distracted, not to mention it was suicide for her. She wasn't skilled enough to work with the elite squadron in protecting Eren, and would likely only get in the way. And god knows she would never hide from battle.

So, with a final idea in mind, Jade found herself smiling. And quietly made her way over to Armin, who smiled too.

* * *

 **hi**

 **how ya doin**

 **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**


	10. Selfless

• **Third Person's POV** •

Jade and Eren were sitting side-by-side while waiting for further instructions. Armin was off planning with the strategists, and Mikasa was sharpening her blades somewhere farther off.

It was perfectly silent to them, with Jade fiddling around with a spare belt within her pocket, and Eren awkwardly twiddling his thumbs. As they waited, the tension growing between them, Eren prodded her shoulder with a finger, earning her attention. Surprised, she pocketed the spare belt. "What is it?" she asked calmly.

She seemed too quiet.

Eren fidgeted with the key around his neck, slightly uncomfortable. "Are you alright?"

Looking up, Jade tucked her bangs behind the disc of her ear—she was careful not to cut herself on the razor blade edge of her ears. "Why do you ask?"

Using his fingernail, he tapped the metal attached to the sides of her head. "I'd think anyone who had this much happening to them at once wouldn't be handling it as well as you seem to be," the 5th Ranker explained, creases forming between his brows. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Heh...It's nothing, I promise," Jade replied, giving him a seemingly honest smile. "I'm just running through the plan in my head."

Eren pursed his lips together. "Alright."

There was another long, awkward pause in between the two of them. Despite having a strange bond, they didn't talk with each other all that often while training. Everyone had their own little groups. Eren had Armin and Mikasa. Reiner had Bertolt. Connie had Sasha. Krista had Ymir. Jean had Marco. And Annie had Jade on occasion. But Annie and Jade were the main loners, despite the fact that Jade was friends with Eren, Armin, and Mikasa.

"Hey, Jade?" Eren spoke up again.

"Yeah?"

He sighed. "I...had an idea. Not sure if it'll work, though."

Jade blinked. "What sort of idea is it?"

Leaning back, the 5th Ranker stretched his arms. "Remember how you removed those huge arm things you had? Maybe you can try that with your ears, and it'll work?"

The 12th snapped her fingers. "Smart!" she cried, before pressing her index and middle finger to the smooth material that cloaked her ears. She let that same greediness from before cloud her heart, and Eren froze up.

Her left eye flashed green for a brief second. It was a rich emerald green, almost as shiny as her polished works. But her original color of sapphire blue remained in the right eye. Eren decided to keep his mouth shut as he watched the metal covering of her ears vanished into nothing.

It was silent for what felt like forever. Jade moved her hands, and her lips parted in awe. She heard the very gentlest of breezes against her skin as she adjusted the position of the limb. The crinkle of cloth rubbing on cloth as her elbow bent. She heard the pitter-patter of her heart fluttering against her rib cage and every huff of air that passed through her nose.

Eren's lips moved, forming words when Jade suddenly let out a terrifying scream. Her range of hearing instantly shot out to unbelievable lengths. She heard the cries of the soldiers below and their heavy breathing. Sweat was dripping from her temples at an unnatural rate, and the pounding of her heart began to overwhelm her. It boomed in her ears over and over, like someone had taken a drum and hit it furiously.

"J-Jade!?" Eren was stiff with surprise as the girl suddenly hunched over and screamed in feral pain. Her eye was practically glowing green at this point, making her look like a monstrous hybrid of sorts. "Jade, put those ears back on!"

She clearly couldn't hear him, but after a few minutes, her screaming had turned into quiet sobbing. "Put the guards back on, Jade."

Slowly but surely, the girl listened to him and molding her hands back over her ears. The disc came in, and her blades followed after one-by-one. Finally, she wiped her tears off her face and looked up at Eren.

As soon as she registered his worry-stricken expression, she snorted. "Pfft..." she covered her mouth with one hand, looking like she was fighting back a laugh. Eren gave her a bewildered look next. "Ahahahaha...!" She held her stomach and began giggling. "Y-your face—ha ha ha...!"

Eren was confused for a good long minute. He was finding it hard to believe that this girl had been screeching out with all of her lung power just a minute ago. But as she kept laughing and snorting, hunched over while hiding her face, it became infectious. He swore there was a glimmer of tears on her cheeks, but it was hard to tell.

Finally, he joined in with her laughter. If she was okay enough to laugh, she was okay enough. Now filled with relief that she was okay, he hugged her and joined in with her joy. When they calmed down, Eren released her. "You sure you're okay?"

Flashing him the most radiant of smiles, she winked. "Yep. Now that I know that my hearing's too good for its own good, I'll try and find something to work as a substitute for these 'earmuffs'."

"Earmuff is too cute of a word for those things." The 5th Ranker eyed them warily as the blades finished growing. They flashed threateningly, and they almost looked like crystals for a minute before becoming fully opaque and silver in color.

"Fine, what do you recommend?" Jade flicked her hair from her face, but it slid back into place.

Eren—humorously—exasperatedly threw his arms into the air. "I don't know. But earmuffs is the wrong word for those things. Trust me."

The two of them talked, sharing ideas until Mikasa and Armin approached them and joined in the conversation. Jade's heart clenched, and she didn't need her new hearing to know that it was singing out painfully for lying to Eren's face. ' _He shouldn't worry_.'

• **Jade Covert's POV** •

Commander Pixis ordered that Eren, Mikasa, and Armin should head out earlier than myself since they had a much longer way to go. In the meantime, I was repairing my leg with the materials that Rico brought back. She clearly improvised on some, but it worked enough for me to make the clicking stop.

As I turned my wrench over a few bolts to keep some gears in place over the leather straps, a figure approached me. He had a bald head, wrinkled corners of his eyes, and a well-trimmed grey mustache that perched on his upper lips. I wanted to salute to the Commander, but I found myself just bowing to him since I was midway through fixing up my leg. "Hello, sir. What can I do for you?"

The man chuckled. "You can speak honestly with me for a start," he said, making my fingers clench around the handle of my tool.

"W...what are you talking about, Commander?" I tore my eyes away from my work for a brief second to look at him properly. "I've been fully honest about my Titan capabilities. There's no way I could carry that boulder with the lack of musculature for those kinds of things. My Titan can only run and kill."

"Hmph, it can run well?" Pixis seemed mildly impressed before his face became serious again. "It's ironic that the cripple of this situation is the fastest one around. And, speaking of your leg..." His eyes narrowed, making the wrinkles at the edges to fold in over themselves. "The lack of honesty I speak of is the lie you told me about it."

I pinched my lips together, unsure of why he said this. I didn't lie. But I didn't say the whole truth. In my defense, I told him as much. "My leg really was crushed by rubble, sir. That was by no means a lie."

"Then why were you so fidgety when you spoke about it, and why are you fidgety now?" He gestured my hands, and I realized they were playing with a special gear I asked Rico to bring for me.

"Is it wrong for me to feel uncomfortable when I talk or think about what happened to me, sir?" I challenged him. He appeared surprised but puffed a breath of air out instead as he sat next to me and rested his chin in his right palm.

"It isn't wrong at all, soldier," he eventually said. "Yet, I feel like you're hiding something from me. This mission won't work unless you trust me enough to tell me your full story."

"Sir, I'm sorry to tell you this, but I won't tell you," I sighed, getting back to work by putting the gear I was previously fidgeting with into its proper place on the inner part of my calf. "It's my burden to deal with, and it's nothing important to what's happening now. It's just my own personal life, that's all."

"And your personal life is important in this instance," Pixis replied smoothly. "Because you, soldier, are the one person who I can't seem to understand in the entire mission."

I blinked and stopped in my work, my hand paused in halfway reaching for the oil can to properly oil the gears. "Wh-what do you mean by that, sir?"

"When I told you about that legend from before, you had a reaction similar to Eren's," the old man explained, twisting one end of his mustache in thought. "However, you are clearly different from Eren in many aspects. For example, his conduct and temperament remain relatively the same wherever he is. You, however, broke down in tears before when you accepted the mission, and you openly laughed with Eren when he tried my whiskey."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is it wrong for me to have those kinds of emotions, sir?" I asked him, tightening the leather around the bottom of my foot. "It's not like I'm some sort of emotionless rock or something."

"However," Pixis retorted. "you react very differently with things than I'd expect."

My cheeks puffed out as I hid a snort with my hand. "Sir, I think anyone would laugh at Eren if he did that sort of thing..." My stomach was tight as I held in my giggles.

The Commander chuckled. "That was quite funny," he agreed. "But that's not my point. Unlike almost every other person I've met in this environment, your actions all seem to be driven away from yourself."

My brows knitted together in confusion. "How do you mean, sir?"

"For example, your reluctance to tell me the full story of how you became so horribly crippled is likely a defense mechanism for other people," the old man told me. "You don't want them to help you shoulder your burdens, and yet you seem to like taking the burdens of other people and placing it on your own back to carry. You say you yourself don't want to talk about it, but in reality, you don't want them to even think about it. You think of yourself as a burden. If people worry, you do everything you can to make them stop."

"Sir, it's because...well..." I locked my jaw. "I'd rather it be myself who undergoes suffering instead of others. They are all valuable to the human race and its victory. Seeing someone in pain is just..." My hands tightened into fists as I put down my wrench. "It hurts me, too."

When I felt a hand on my shoulder, I jumped slightly. But it was just the Commander with a reassuring smile on his face. "I'm going to say what I think your personality is, and correct me at the end if you think I'm wrong. Alright, Jade?"

Blinking, I nodded my consent. "Yes, sir."

He pulled the end of his mustache again before he pulled out the metal flask from inside his jacket. "You, my dear, are someone who does everything she can to help people. You wear a mask of joy to deflect worry away from yourself. You break down when you think that you're unable to help anybody. You become angry when people become too selfish. And you enter a dejected state when you think about those you couldn't or didn't help."

I stared at the ground. "Give me proof of how you deduced those traits, sir."

He took a swig of his whiskey. "Your fake face of joy was easy. Eren was clearly worried about you when you removed those ears of yours, so you laughed it off like it was funny once they got back," he provided perfect evidence. "Your breakdown was easy to figure out as well. You kept on looking at the soldiers on the inside of Wall Maria, and that alone seemed to make you cry harder. You might not have noticed, but I did."

I blushed. It was embarrassing, the way he talked about my personality like that. I picked up my rag for polishing and began to rub away at the small patches of dirt that seeped into the joints.

"Your anger was a bit more difficult to discern, but my proof for that deduction is how you reacted when some of the soldiers in the whole group stated that they would rather be at home instead of fighting for our cause. You kept glaring at them over the wall, so that's my proof. It's not the best kind, but it fits to an extent."

"Hmm..." I scratched my head and looked around for my gloves as the Commander continued.

"And, finally, my last piece of evidence towards your dejectedness is when I told that legend."

My eyes widened, and my muscles became tight within seconds.

"You became more cynical, rude, and shut off when I told that legend," Pixis explained, using movements with his hands to illustrate what he meant. "You kept trying to change the topic. And you had a look of hurt in your eyes. You were thinking of your family, weren't you."

I squeezed my eyes shut. "Y-yeah..." My voice broke in the middle as I thought of the person who told me those stories. "My brother, Joseph, died for the Survey Corps when I was around seven years old. He left and never came back. He visited us from time to time, but then he just...stopped. Then Mommy, she...told me he was dead. She was sobbing the whole time, and she had an arm cradled to her chest. She went missing soon after that. And Daddy just...tried to be strong in front of me. But he would cry at night when he thought I was asleep." I felt tears of my own well up from within my lids, and I wheezed out a small laugh. "Heh...I don't even know why I'm telling you this, Commander. This must be the biggest waste of your time, spending it with me."

He patted me on the back as I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "It isn't, because now I can understand you and people like you," he comforted me. I'd never really told anyone about my family situation. Mikasa, Eren, and Armin knew it quite well, but no one else in the 104th Corps knew about how my family was a broken mess.

"There aren't many people like me," I responded, erecting my back before stretching out my arms. "Most people still know what it feels like to be whole. I've been broken for years."

The Commander then stood up while hiding his flask. "Jade," he said. "You are, by far, the most selfless person I've ever met. Don't ever lose that. But don't let it control you, either."

For the hundredth time that day, I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "'Control me'...?"

"You risk yourself constantly and recklessly for other people," Pixis spoke with a slight edge to his voice. "Now that you have a very high value to mankind with your ability, you need to learn to put yourself first."

"I won't," I shot back instantly, tugging my fingerless gloves on. His eyes widened. "I'm sorry for my disrespect, sir, but I've always put myself at a low value. Every person down there waiting to start this suicide mission has something to contribute. Like a pile of sand. If you take one or two grains off, it might not seem like a big deal. But take away a hundred, and there's a dent. They make up that pile, and with each of these missions, that pile is starting to grow short. When I place myself at a lower value than them, I'm protecting those steppings stones you people use everywhere."

For the first time, I saw a rude frown on Pixis' face. He clearly didn't like being called wrong. But he didn't say anything. "I will get your escort for your drop-off point, alright, Recruit Covert?"

"Yes, sir!" I saluted.

I waited patiently and fiddled with my rag. I'd polished my leg to the point where it would blind anybody if I walked into the sunlight. But I kept rubbing at the gears, tightening the leather straps occasionally to make sure each shred of metal was in their proper place.

I tuned my hearing on the soldiers nearby. Despite the faint ringing in my eardrums, I could still hear everything I needed to hear. "...what a freak. She just starts screaming and crying out of nowhere."

"I heard she's not even doing anything important in the mission to seal Trost!" another one added. "And they expect us to rely on her! A cripple! Hah! What a joke."

I sighed, and stood up to test out my mechanical leg to be sure I didn't make the straps too tight when I heard a voice call across the open space. "Jade!"

I looked up to see a familiar face. A smile touched my lips and waved back with an eagerness only a child could have. "Mr Hannes!" Next to the Squad Leader was the Commander, who was pulling at his mustache while frowning at me.

Mr. Hannes moved forward and wrapped his arms around me. "It's nice to see you again, Jade," he laughed.

"Hehe, likewise!" I grinned, returning the gesture gratefully. When we separated, I fixed my gaze on the Commander. "Sir, how did you know that this man knew me?"

Pixis smirked and adjusted his jacket. "You see, soldier, he always talked about a beautiful cripple he knew who was in the 104th Training Corps that he knew from Shiganshina District," the old man explained, nudging Mr. Hannes with his elbow. "Not only are you one of two women in the 104th Corps who came from Shiganshina, but you are also well-known as the only cripple in said Training Corps."

I blushed, but immediately composed myself as I tightened my ponytail. "So, is Squad Leader Hannes the one who will be escorting me to my drop off point, sir?"

"Yes, soldier," Pixis replied with a wave of his hand. "And, he is to stay with you even after your transformation in the case of an accident of any kind."

"Understood, sir," I saluted, placing a fist over my heart. "I will not let you down, sir, and I swear to you, I will prove to you that my selflessness is a trait that will never be a double-edged blade."

Pixis' eyes flashed menacingly. "You may leave now, Miss Covert," the old man said, with a subtle hiss underlying the tone of his voice. He turned on his heel and moved back to speak with other higher-ups. I touched my bangs as I wondered; how on Earth did I have the courage to speak to the most powerful man of the Southern Region in that sort of manner?

I must have been stuck in thought for a while because I jumped when I felt a hand squeeze my shoulder gently. "Ready to go, Jade?"

I stared into the Squad Leader's concerned eyes for a minute before nodding and smiling. "Yep. Just don't slow me down, you old coot." I jabbed him in the chest mockingly, smirking as I flicked my bangs out of my eyes.

"Is that a challenge, Miss Covert?" Mr. Hannes raised an eyebrow.

I twisted my dial to 'RUN' right away. "Pretty much." Laughing, he followed after me at a steady pace.

When we arrived at the drop-off point, I looked at Mr. Hannes. "Well...this our stop," I said, slightly breathless. The Wall was very long, so running along it wasn't exactly fun anymore. The sense of mysticality still surrounded it, but my other senses were overflowing with adrenaline.

Mr. Hannes patted my shoulder. "Jade," he told me in a serious tone, earning a curious look from me. "Whatever you do, if there's a chance you might die, leave. No one here wants you dead."

I scoffed. "Give me a better reason," I snarled. "Nearly everyone on that Wall said they wanted me to throw myself off and die instead of help them. I'm weak. Who would trust a cripple when they can trust themselves more?"

I heard the Squad Leader sigh. "Jade, how's this for a reason; Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and any friends you might have made while you trained still want you alive because that's the selfish side of them. I want you alive, because I'm selfish and I like having you around. Besides, no one's been running secret beer errands for me lately."

Playfully, he elbowed me in the ribs, causing me to giggle before I felt more tears in my eyes. "Thanks, Mr. Hannes. I'm sorry I was such a disappointment."

Before my resolve crumbled, I made a running start and flung myself off the Wall. My hands moved to the blades along my ears and felt the sharp material slice my flesh wide open. I felt it cut through my bones like nothing and watched lightning fly and crackle in the air. My lungs clenched, and before I hit the ground, flesh suddenly coated me and my vision darkened.

• **Third Person's POV** •

Hannes started as the brunette dived off the Wall with squeezed shut eyelids. He watched lightning extend and fork away from her small form. But it grew exponentially, creating a Titan of fourteen meters high. Metal scored her ears, similar to the human Jade.

There was no mouth on this beast, making it terrifying in its own right. Sunken-in eyes of sapphire color darted around, searching and scavenging the area for her prey. "So that's...Jade as a...as a Titan..." Even though he knew it was the girl he saved years ago, he was still daunted at the sight of her.

The Bladed Titan, however, didn't mind the horrified stare of her savior as she suddenly grew out blades from the tops of her forearms down past her wrists until they almost touched the ground below her.

Her eyes flashed green for a brief second.

Her blades collided together, nearly cracking under the force Jade put them under.

Hannes screamed, convulsing in pain as his ears tried to bleed to desperately block out the godforsaken noise that came from her murderous weapons.


End file.
